In a bit of a time crunch folks, so we're gonna keep this short. Not a lot of news to cover anyway.
But before we get into football, a Programming note!
Effective immediately, I have accepted the position of Sports Editor at the Breeze. I will be running point for sports for the remainder of my time at JMU, along with a great young guy named Wayne Epps. You can see our work every Monday and Thursdays. Fans of the column, dont worry-- I will continue to write the Fanatic and Proud commentary column every Thursday. You can find it in print, on the Breeze app for Iphone and Android, or over at www.breezejmu.org. All three are wonderful ways to regularly read the ramblings of yours truly.
Onto football.
Baylor at West Virginia
This will be the only game I preview this week, as I'm very short on time. Frankly, theres not a lot of good football on this weekend anyway. (Case in point: College Game Day is in the Big 10. That's the Lee Corso equivalent of announcing to the world that you have better ways to spend your time.)
Throw out the bias and listen to this nonsense. I subscribe to Bleacher Reports West Virginia feed, and get emails every couple of days with a nice compilation of WV football news. It encompasses The Charleston Daily Mail, the Charleston Gazette, the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, ESPN, and BR's own stuff. One of the things they do during football season is simulate some of the weekend's biggest games on the latest NCAA football video game to get an idea of which teams might be on upset alert. This week's sim? Well, it predicted a Baylor Bears win in Morgantown by a score of 34-14. Credit to BR and their great staff of writers, specifically Adam Kramer, for the following:
"The stout West Virginia offense is held to only 210 yards against the Baylor defense (you’ve been drinking, haven’t you, NCAA?), and Baylor cruises in Morgantown...
The couch inferno following this game can be seen from Indiana. This is rather surprising because normally these Saturday flames are barely visible from Kentucky."
Even Bleacher Report seems to know how preposterous it is to suggest that Baylor's hand-me-down defense is going to limit West Virginia to 14 points. Your honor, the defense rests.
If you like defense, wait for Alabama to play LSU on November 3. If you like offense, show up here.
Other games you might wanna peek at while you're locked in your room: Tennessee at Georgia, Texas at Oklahoma, FSU at USF, Oregon State at Arizona, Cincinatti vs Virginia Tech.
Pick Against the Breeze
My picks will imminently be appearing in the paper alongside the other editors, but in the meantime, I will continue to put my Breeze-best 12-6 Pick 'Em record to the test on here.
Baylor at West Virginia
Texas at Oklahoma State
Ohio State at Michigan State
Saints at Packers
Giants at Eagles
Bears at Cowboys
Last Week's Record: 5-1
Season Record: 12-6
Top 25 Forecast
Ole Miss at 1 Alabama
2 Oregon at Washington State
Towson at 3 LSU
4 Florida State at South Florida
Tennessee at 5 Georgia
6 South Carolina at Kentucky
25 Baylor at 9 West Virginia
12 Texas at Oklahoma State
14 Ohio State at 20 Michigan State
15 TCU at Southern Methodist
17 Clemson at Boston College
18 Oregon State at Arizona
19 Louisville at Southern Mississippi
Wisconsin at 22 Nebraska
24 Boise State at New Mexico
Saturday, September 29, 2012
Sunday, September 23, 2012
Hungover Like it's 1997
It's Sunday once again, and that means I should be overwhelmed by the intense amount of college football that has been coursing through my veins over the last 24 hours. But for all the trials and tribulations of the gridiron, it is a baseball that leaves me as dumbfounded as I've ever been in my professional sports writing career.
The Baltimore Orioles have won their 16th consecutive extra innings game, as of yesterday's 12-inning 9-6 win up in Fenway. Yes, my Orioles. The ones that haven't been relevant when the leaves start changing in 15 years. But hey, who am I to stand in the way of greatness? Go get em O's.
I can't explain how a team with a terrible run differential is going to finish the regular season with 90 wins. Is this coincidence? Maybe. Either way, where's Michael Lewis when you need him? This has best-seller written all over it.
The Yankees and Orioles are in a deadlocked race to the finish. Neither team loses ever, which makes the fast-paced, crazy nature of this pennant race even wilder. Since beginning a series with Toronto on August 24, the Orioles have lost seven games. I don't know this for sure, but that's gotta be a league-low mark. The Yankees are nearly equaling that mark, having lost seven games since the beginning of September. The Pinstripes are currently on a 7-game win streak; Baltimore has a six-game streak of their own. Oh, and the Orioles win streak? It's covered a span of 68 innings (14 additional innings). I'm beginning to think they're letting games get tied late on purpose, just so they can show off. Or hey, maybe it's just coincidence.
And by the time you start reading this, Baltimore will begin the final game of a series in Boston (first pitch, 1:35PM). The Red Sox are last place in the AL East-- behind even Toronto-- and have assured themselves their first losing season since 1997.
The Orioles last winning season and playoff appearance? 1997.
And that's not coincidence.
#6 JMU 32, Rhode Island 7
I'm not paying $10 to watch a shitty video package that I could do three weeks into my HTML coding class. Sorry Rhode Island, your shh-don't-tell-anyone NEC football budget does not sway my wallet one bit. So I didn't get to see any of this game.
Here's what I do know. There must have been something in the Virginia water supply, because Thorpe threw for 340 yards and two touchdowns. Nice play calling by Mickey, who decided to go to the passing game to take the focus away from a beat up run-game. Thorpe finished with two touchdowns and two picks, and since he's not a Heisman contender, I could care less about his interceptions here (though his decision-making often bothers me a great deal).
One of the best aspects of this game from an offensive position were the no-namers getting into the end zone for JMU. With Scott injured and Coble/Brown out for the year for their own respective reasons, it's good to see further depth at the skill position that will continue to keep the end zones busy.
Enjoy the week off Dukes, because the champs come a-callin in 13 days.
Maryland 21, #8 West Virginia 31
God forbid West Virginia play a game where they don't score 60-some points. The way announcers and commentators were talking about this game, you'd think the Mountaineers lost by 30.
Edsall and his staff knows our playbook pretty well, and dialed up a fair amount of pressure and nice play-calling to keep our offense in check. Bad news for Terps fans: "keeping our offense in check" still means Geno throws for 300+ yards and three touchdowns, and still no picks. Oh, and Tavon Austin had over 175 yards receiving and all three touchdowns. Darn, too bad we didn't play well. With 30 mile an hour gusts out on the mountain.
Oh wait.
#15 K-State 24, #6 Oklahoma 19
Okay, just let me get this out of my system really quick.
I TOLD YOU, I TOLD YOU, I TOLD YOU.
Oklahoma is always overrated. It's like a law of physics. When Sir Isaac Newton felt the wrath of the Apple Tree, dropping tender fruit upon his head, he was quoted as immediately saying "Oh! Gravity! And boy is that Oklahoma team overrated."
Even still, this is definitely a noteworthy upset. Kansas State hasn't won in Norman since... wait, what? 1997. Well this is awkward. Look, nice job Bill Snyder, but let's keep the focus on the Orioles, okay?
The Sooners are on the outside looking in as far as the Big 12 Title Race is concerned, and that's exactly how I envisioned it in the preseason. Don't expect them not to contend, but don't label them frontrunners either.
If you need a reminder of my remaining Big 12 predictions-- a race I'm obviously very invested in and attuned too-- recall that I have picked Texas and West Virginia to beat Kansas State, TCU to beat Texas and Oklahoma, and I half-way expect (though refuse to officially predict) West Virginia to drop a game to a team they probably shouldn't lose too (ie, Texas Tech/Iowa State). Texas in Austin is the biggest challenge of the year, though. Don't get confused.
#18 Michigan 6, #11 Notre Dame 13
The Notre Dame defense is going to get a ton of credit here, and frankly, it's undeserved. But why, Chase? They held explosive Michigan to just six points!
Easy, baby birds. I'll feed you.
I got to see a lot of the tape from this game, and Denard Robinson did not look like Denard Robinson. For some unimaginable reason, Brady Hoke & Co's game plan to score points was to turn D-Rob into a pocket passer. I know, because it worked so well against Alabama, right? Let's do it again!
As it turns out, doing the same thing and expecting different results actually is the definition of insanity. Meeeechigan's quarterback was so great that he actually oversaw an offense that committed SIX turnovers. Five were his! And we're not talking great plays on the ball by Notre Dame backs, either, we're talking throws straight to linebackers dropped into coverage. Six turnovers, and all BK and the boys can manage is 13 points?
These teams are exactly what I thought they were: above average, not great, and unable to compete with the really elite teams. When Notre Dame plays somebody that's legit- USC, maybe Oklahoma or Miami- they're going to get a rude awakening.
#10 Clemson 37, #4 Florida State 49
You win Seminoles. You finally have earned my respect. I refused to pick FSU until they stopped choking away their perennial hype every September. Fine, you made a statement. I have to acknowledge that.
But let's not slide FSU into the national championship game just yet. Road games at NC State, suddenly upset-prone Miami, always dangerous Virginia Tech (at home), and defense-minded Maryland. Oh, and the showdown with Florida, as well. Clemson might have exposed the Sems a little bit, even in the loss. They are definitely beatable, even by a lot of the mediocre talent in the ACC.
CAA Action
New Hampshire 61, Old Dominion 64
The fact that ODU scored over 60 points and still needed a game-winning field goal to win makes me think JMU is going to kick their ass.
The fact that ODU quarterback Taylor Heinicke accumulated a D-1 record 730 passing yards makes me think they're gonna kick ours.
Albany 30, Maine 20
Albany is an NEC school, so this loss doesn't count against Maine in conference. Still, they lost to an NEC school. That might be even worse.
Delaware 51, William and Mary 21
The Blue Hens look like they might be the best challenger to JMU for the CAA crown.
Other Notable Scores
Florida Atlantic 7, #1 Alabama 40
I love that we criticize Oregon, West Virginia, and Florida State for not playing anyone til week 4 yet Alabama already has the National title sewn up beating up on Western Kentucky, Florida Atlantic, and two schools that weren't even close to 100%. Call me when they've beaten someone. And no, Ole Miss does not count as "someone" either.
#2 LSU 12, Auburn 10
Sometimes, I'd rather be good than deep.
#22 Arizona 0, #3 Oregon 49
I'm becoming more and more convinced that Oregon is a National Championship frontrunner. If they can get past USC.
Oregon State 27, #19 UCLA 20
Jonathan Franklin is good. UCLA is not.
The Civil War is becoming increasingly interesting each week, and not in a Robert E. Lee kind of way, either.
Bowling Green 0, Virginia Tech 37
Nothing to see here folks, move along. Bowling Green's Rush Defense ranks somewhere around 135 with me. Yeah-- I could probably name a dozen FCS schools who'd defend the run better (JMU is definitely one of them). This is what I expected Tech to do, so they deserve some praise for coming out and executing, and not letting Pitt beat them twice. But don't get mistaken and think this is more than it is.
Miami 32, Georgia Tech 26
The ACC is starting to look more and more like the Big East... and I mean that as a compliment. Anything could happen.
Florida State, you're on watch.
South Florida 27, Ball State 31
...But the Sems aren't on watch just yet, because South Florida, once again, seems to not possess the fortitude to be a major threat to anyone of consequence.
Rutgers 35, Arkansas 26
I'm not making a big deal out of this because I think Rutgers is a better team than Arkansas. ESPN's not-so-SECret love affair can continue, but Arkansas just isn't that great of a team.
That's it for the hangover this week. I'm off radio next weekend as Tony will be out of town and JMU is on bye, so keep it on the blog for all things college football. Other than that, see you next weekend, where the orange-and-black clan will probably be dangerously close to partying like it's 1997.
Cameron Starke, shoutout! Hope Tosh was good.
The Baltimore Orioles have won their 16th consecutive extra innings game, as of yesterday's 12-inning 9-6 win up in Fenway. Yes, my Orioles. The ones that haven't been relevant when the leaves start changing in 15 years. But hey, who am I to stand in the way of greatness? Go get em O's.
I can't explain how a team with a terrible run differential is going to finish the regular season with 90 wins. Is this coincidence? Maybe. Either way, where's Michael Lewis when you need him? This has best-seller written all over it.
The Yankees and Orioles are in a deadlocked race to the finish. Neither team loses ever, which makes the fast-paced, crazy nature of this pennant race even wilder. Since beginning a series with Toronto on August 24, the Orioles have lost seven games. I don't know this for sure, but that's gotta be a league-low mark. The Yankees are nearly equaling that mark, having lost seven games since the beginning of September. The Pinstripes are currently on a 7-game win streak; Baltimore has a six-game streak of their own. Oh, and the Orioles win streak? It's covered a span of 68 innings (14 additional innings). I'm beginning to think they're letting games get tied late on purpose, just so they can show off. Or hey, maybe it's just coincidence.
And by the time you start reading this, Baltimore will begin the final game of a series in Boston (first pitch, 1:35PM). The Red Sox are last place in the AL East-- behind even Toronto-- and have assured themselves their first losing season since 1997.
The Orioles last winning season and playoff appearance? 1997.
And that's not coincidence.
#6 JMU 32, Rhode Island 7
I'm not paying $10 to watch a shitty video package that I could do three weeks into my HTML coding class. Sorry Rhode Island, your shh-don't-tell-anyone NEC football budget does not sway my wallet one bit. So I didn't get to see any of this game.
Here's what I do know. There must have been something in the Virginia water supply, because Thorpe threw for 340 yards and two touchdowns. Nice play calling by Mickey, who decided to go to the passing game to take the focus away from a beat up run-game. Thorpe finished with two touchdowns and two picks, and since he's not a Heisman contender, I could care less about his interceptions here (though his decision-making often bothers me a great deal).
One of the best aspects of this game from an offensive position were the no-namers getting into the end zone for JMU. With Scott injured and Coble/Brown out for the year for their own respective reasons, it's good to see further depth at the skill position that will continue to keep the end zones busy.
Enjoy the week off Dukes, because the champs come a-callin in 13 days.
Maryland 21, #8 West Virginia 31
God forbid West Virginia play a game where they don't score 60-some points. The way announcers and commentators were talking about this game, you'd think the Mountaineers lost by 30.
Edsall and his staff knows our playbook pretty well, and dialed up a fair amount of pressure and nice play-calling to keep our offense in check. Bad news for Terps fans: "keeping our offense in check" still means Geno throws for 300+ yards and three touchdowns, and still no picks. Oh, and Tavon Austin had over 175 yards receiving and all three touchdowns. Darn, too bad we didn't play well. With 30 mile an hour gusts out on the mountain.
Oh wait.
#15 K-State 24, #6 Oklahoma 19
Okay, just let me get this out of my system really quick.
I TOLD YOU, I TOLD YOU, I TOLD YOU.
Oklahoma is always overrated. It's like a law of physics. When Sir Isaac Newton felt the wrath of the Apple Tree, dropping tender fruit upon his head, he was quoted as immediately saying "Oh! Gravity! And boy is that Oklahoma team overrated."
Even still, this is definitely a noteworthy upset. Kansas State hasn't won in Norman since... wait, what? 1997. Well this is awkward. Look, nice job Bill Snyder, but let's keep the focus on the Orioles, okay?
The Sooners are on the outside looking in as far as the Big 12 Title Race is concerned, and that's exactly how I envisioned it in the preseason. Don't expect them not to contend, but don't label them frontrunners either.
If you need a reminder of my remaining Big 12 predictions-- a race I'm obviously very invested in and attuned too-- recall that I have picked Texas and West Virginia to beat Kansas State, TCU to beat Texas and Oklahoma, and I half-way expect (though refuse to officially predict) West Virginia to drop a game to a team they probably shouldn't lose too (ie, Texas Tech/Iowa State). Texas in Austin is the biggest challenge of the year, though. Don't get confused.
#18 Michigan 6, #11 Notre Dame 13
The Notre Dame defense is going to get a ton of credit here, and frankly, it's undeserved. But why, Chase? They held explosive Michigan to just six points!
Easy, baby birds. I'll feed you.
I got to see a lot of the tape from this game, and Denard Robinson did not look like Denard Robinson. For some unimaginable reason, Brady Hoke & Co's game plan to score points was to turn D-Rob into a pocket passer. I know, because it worked so well against Alabama, right? Let's do it again!
As it turns out, doing the same thing and expecting different results actually is the definition of insanity. Meeeechigan's quarterback was so great that he actually oversaw an offense that committed SIX turnovers. Five were his! And we're not talking great plays on the ball by Notre Dame backs, either, we're talking throws straight to linebackers dropped into coverage. Six turnovers, and all BK and the boys can manage is 13 points?
These teams are exactly what I thought they were: above average, not great, and unable to compete with the really elite teams. When Notre Dame plays somebody that's legit- USC, maybe Oklahoma or Miami- they're going to get a rude awakening.
#10 Clemson 37, #4 Florida State 49
You win Seminoles. You finally have earned my respect. I refused to pick FSU until they stopped choking away their perennial hype every September. Fine, you made a statement. I have to acknowledge that.
But let's not slide FSU into the national championship game just yet. Road games at NC State, suddenly upset-prone Miami, always dangerous Virginia Tech (at home), and defense-minded Maryland. Oh, and the showdown with Florida, as well. Clemson might have exposed the Sems a little bit, even in the loss. They are definitely beatable, even by a lot of the mediocre talent in the ACC.
CAA Action
New Hampshire 61, Old Dominion 64
The fact that ODU scored over 60 points and still needed a game-winning field goal to win makes me think JMU is going to kick their ass.
The fact that ODU quarterback Taylor Heinicke accumulated a D-1 record 730 passing yards makes me think they're gonna kick ours.
Albany 30, Maine 20
Albany is an NEC school, so this loss doesn't count against Maine in conference. Still, they lost to an NEC school. That might be even worse.
Delaware 51, William and Mary 21
The Blue Hens look like they might be the best challenger to JMU for the CAA crown.
Other Notable Scores
Florida Atlantic 7, #1 Alabama 40
I love that we criticize Oregon, West Virginia, and Florida State for not playing anyone til week 4 yet Alabama already has the National title sewn up beating up on Western Kentucky, Florida Atlantic, and two schools that weren't even close to 100%. Call me when they've beaten someone. And no, Ole Miss does not count as "someone" either.
#2 LSU 12, Auburn 10
Sometimes, I'd rather be good than deep.
#22 Arizona 0, #3 Oregon 49
I'm becoming more and more convinced that Oregon is a National Championship frontrunner. If they can get past USC.
Oregon State 27, #19 UCLA 20
Jonathan Franklin is good. UCLA is not.
The Civil War is becoming increasingly interesting each week, and not in a Robert E. Lee kind of way, either.
Bowling Green 0, Virginia Tech 37
Nothing to see here folks, move along. Bowling Green's Rush Defense ranks somewhere around 135 with me. Yeah-- I could probably name a dozen FCS schools who'd defend the run better (JMU is definitely one of them). This is what I expected Tech to do, so they deserve some praise for coming out and executing, and not letting Pitt beat them twice. But don't get mistaken and think this is more than it is.
Miami 32, Georgia Tech 26
The ACC is starting to look more and more like the Big East... and I mean that as a compliment. Anything could happen.
Florida State, you're on watch.
South Florida 27, Ball State 31
...But the Sems aren't on watch just yet, because South Florida, once again, seems to not possess the fortitude to be a major threat to anyone of consequence.
Rutgers 35, Arkansas 26
I'm not making a big deal out of this because I think Rutgers is a better team than Arkansas. ESPN's not-so-SECret love affair can continue, but Arkansas just isn't that great of a team.
That's it for the hangover this week. I'm off radio next weekend as Tony will be out of town and JMU is on bye, so keep it on the blog for all things college football. Other than that, see you next weekend, where the orange-and-black clan will probably be dangerously close to partying like it's 1997.
Cameron Starke, shoutout! Hope Tosh was good.
Saturday, September 22, 2012
Pregame: The Musical
It's mid-evening last Tuesday as I'm watching netflix with twitter up on my computer. I'm occassionally taking time to sift through the updates, but in reality, it's Tuesday. Football is four days away. Not much popping up in my all-sports twitter feed.
Suddenly, something stands out. Dae'Quan Scott, starting JMU runningback that tears linebackers and DB's to shreds, tweets lyrics from this John Mayer song.
My response: dude, seriously?
This is a staple of the classic "girl's multi-purpose attention-seeking facebook status song lyrics" list, so obviously I'm a bit curious here. Scott replied almost immediately to me, noting that he "listens to it all."
Hey, good for him. If I had biddies lining up from here to Bridgeforth to get in my inner circle because of who I was, I probably wouldn't mind proclaiming an inner love for John Mayer either. Unfortunately this is not the world we live in. So while Scott does his job and continues to rake in phone numbers, I will do my job and take tongue-in-cheek shots at him and his ipodfrom the safe confines of my bedroom where he and his friends can't hurt me.
Hopefully, he has a sense of humor and can take it. I'm thinking he can; have you seen the way he runs between the tackles?
Games to Watch- Brought to you by Dae'Quan Scott's Ipod
Kansas State at Oklahoma
What can I say? I guess I'm a sucker for dual threat quarterbacks that don't wear the color maroon and publicly brandish firearms. Collin Klein is a beast, and he's got the sweetest nickname in college football- Optimus Klein. He and the fighting Snydercats will be Stormin Norman to try to take out OKLAHOMA, THE GREATEST TEAM IN ALL THE LAND, WHO CARES THAT THEY LOST A BUNCH OF PLAYERS TO INJURY TWO WEEKS BEFORE THE SEASON THEYRE AMAZING AND NOT OVERRATED AT ALL.
Actually, that pretty much sums up how I feel about both teams. Caps Lock aside, it's gonna be a great game to watch. Collin Klein puts this team on his back so much, he makes Greg Jennings look like a pop warner kid. Oklahoma, for all its problems, still can't be overlooked, particularly when they've only lost three home games this millenium.
Maybe I'm letting my love for Klein get in the way of my sensible analyst here, but I really hope K-State wins this one.
DQS Soundtrack Song: Falling for You by Colbie Caillat
Clemson at Florida State
I'm gonna give you a scenario, you tell me what year this is from:
Florida State is a wildly hyped up team with national championship aspirations and talent all over the field. An early season showdown in September could go a long way to determining their legitimacy and shot at the crystal football.
What season is it from? 2012? 2011? 2010? Other years that you know happened but can't quite remember, because you don't pay attention to irrelevant programs like Florida State?
DQS Soundtrack Song: Baby One More Time by Britney Spears
Michigan at Notre Dame
Week 4 is prime overreaction territory. We think we have teams pegged now that we've watched them blow out three consecutive MAAC teams. The Wolverines get dominated by the defending national champions? THEY'RE TERRIBLE, JUST LIKE THE BIG 10! (okay, actually, the Big 10 is pretty terrible) Notre Dame beats the hell out of Navy and Michigan State? THROWBACK TO '88?!?! NOTRE DAME WILL PLAY FOR THE NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP!!
(+10 Bonus points if you can name the team Notre Dame played for the 1988 National Championship)
In reality, these programs probably haven't moved much from their recent spots: former powerhouses that will field above average teams, but won't be contending for a championship this year or next year.
DQS Soundtrack Song: Better Days by the Goo Goo Dolls
Arizona at Oregon
Sorry, I'm already out of breath.
DQS Soundtrack Song: Fireworks by Katy Perry
Rutgers at Arkansas
So, let me get this straight. Your old head coach crashed his motorcycle into a ditch and quit, your new coach is 27 million dollars in debt, you lost to a school I've never heard of at home and then got beat 52-0 the next week by your in conference rival, and your quarterback is publicly criticizing your team? And now you have to gear up for an undefeated Big East team that would further lower and debase you should you lose at home again? Which is entirely possible, because they're actually pretty good?
DQS Soundtrack Song: Fix You by Coldplay
Missouri at South Carolina
There might be four quarterbacks that play in this game. The HBC better keep some band-aids ready. Connor Shaw is beat to Hell, but don't forget-- this is the south, you gotta be ready to give them out for hospitality's sake, too.
DQS Soundtrack Song: Broken by Seether/Amy Lee
Pick Against the Breeze
JMU vs Rhode Island
Oklahoma vs Kansas State
Clemson vs Florida State
Patriots vs Ravens
Dolphins vs Jets
Eagles vs Cardinals
Last Week's Record: 4-2
Season Record: 7-5
Top 25 Forecast
Florida Atlantic at 1 Alabama
2 LSU at Auburn
22 Arizona at 3 Oregon
10 Clemson at 4 Florida State
Vanderbilt at 5 Georgia
15 Kansas State at 6 Oklahoma
Missouri at 7 South Carolina
Maryland at 8 West Virginia
18 Michigan at 11 Notre Dame
California at 13 USC
Kentucky at 14 Florida
UAB at 16 Ohio State
Virginia at 17 TCU
Oregon St at 19 UCLA
20 Louisville at FIU
E. Michigan at 21 Michigan St
South Alabama at 23 Mississippi St
Idaho St at 25 Nebraska
(Editor's Note: the C4G blog has no inside knowledge of the music on Dae'Quan Scott's actual ipod, though we respect whatever genre of music gets him pumped for game days. This blog does, however, have inside knowledge of the best FCS runninbacks in the country, and Scott is undoubtedly one of them. This concludes the ego-stroking portion of this blog.)
Suddenly, something stands out. Dae'Quan Scott, starting JMU runningback that tears linebackers and DB's to shreds, tweets lyrics from this John Mayer song.
My response: dude, seriously?
This is a staple of the classic "girl's multi-purpose attention-seeking facebook status song lyrics" list, so obviously I'm a bit curious here. Scott replied almost immediately to me, noting that he "listens to it all."
Hey, good for him. If I had biddies lining up from here to Bridgeforth to get in my inner circle because of who I was, I probably wouldn't mind proclaiming an inner love for John Mayer either. Unfortunately this is not the world we live in. So while Scott does his job and continues to rake in phone numbers, I will do my job and take tongue-in-cheek shots at him and his ipod
Hopefully, he has a sense of humor and can take it. I'm thinking he can; have you seen the way he runs between the tackles?
Games to Watch- Brought to you by Dae'Quan Scott's Ipod
Kansas State at Oklahoma
What can I say? I guess I'm a sucker for dual threat quarterbacks that don't wear the color maroon and publicly brandish firearms. Collin Klein is a beast, and he's got the sweetest nickname in college football- Optimus Klein. He and the fighting Snydercats will be Stormin Norman to try to take out OKLAHOMA, THE GREATEST TEAM IN ALL THE LAND, WHO CARES THAT THEY LOST A BUNCH OF PLAYERS TO INJURY TWO WEEKS BEFORE THE SEASON THEYRE AMAZING AND NOT OVERRATED AT ALL.
Actually, that pretty much sums up how I feel about both teams. Caps Lock aside, it's gonna be a great game to watch. Collin Klein puts this team on his back so much, he makes Greg Jennings look like a pop warner kid. Oklahoma, for all its problems, still can't be overlooked, particularly when they've only lost three home games this millenium.
Maybe I'm letting my love for Klein get in the way of my sensible analyst here, but I really hope K-State wins this one.
DQS Soundtrack Song: Falling for You by Colbie Caillat
Clemson at Florida State
I'm gonna give you a scenario, you tell me what year this is from:
Florida State is a wildly hyped up team with national championship aspirations and talent all over the field. An early season showdown in September could go a long way to determining their legitimacy and shot at the crystal football.
What season is it from? 2012? 2011? 2010? Other years that you know happened but can't quite remember, because you don't pay attention to irrelevant programs like Florida State?
DQS Soundtrack Song: Baby One More Time by Britney Spears
Michigan at Notre Dame
Week 4 is prime overreaction territory. We think we have teams pegged now that we've watched them blow out three consecutive MAAC teams. The Wolverines get dominated by the defending national champions? THEY'RE TERRIBLE, JUST LIKE THE BIG 10! (okay, actually, the Big 10 is pretty terrible) Notre Dame beats the hell out of Navy and Michigan State? THROWBACK TO '88?!?! NOTRE DAME WILL PLAY FOR THE NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP!!
(+10 Bonus points if you can name the team Notre Dame played for the 1988 National Championship)
In reality, these programs probably haven't moved much from their recent spots: former powerhouses that will field above average teams, but won't be contending for a championship this year or next year.
DQS Soundtrack Song: Better Days by the Goo Goo Dolls
Arizona at Oregon
Sorry, I'm already out of breath.
DQS Soundtrack Song: Fireworks by Katy Perry
Rutgers at Arkansas
So, let me get this straight. Your old head coach crashed his motorcycle into a ditch and quit, your new coach is 27 million dollars in debt, you lost to a school I've never heard of at home and then got beat 52-0 the next week by your in conference rival, and your quarterback is publicly criticizing your team? And now you have to gear up for an undefeated Big East team that would further lower and debase you should you lose at home again? Which is entirely possible, because they're actually pretty good?
DQS Soundtrack Song: Fix You by Coldplay
Missouri at South Carolina
There might be four quarterbacks that play in this game. The HBC better keep some band-aids ready. Connor Shaw is beat to Hell, but don't forget-- this is the south, you gotta be ready to give them out for hospitality's sake, too.
DQS Soundtrack Song: Broken by Seether/Amy Lee
Pick Against the Breeze
JMU vs Rhode Island
Oklahoma vs Kansas State
Clemson vs Florida State
Patriots vs Ravens
Dolphins vs Jets
Eagles vs Cardinals
Last Week's Record: 4-2
Season Record: 7-5
Top 25 Forecast
Florida Atlantic at 1 Alabama
2 LSU at Auburn
22 Arizona at 3 Oregon
10 Clemson at 4 Florida State
Vanderbilt at 5 Georgia
15 Kansas State at 6 Oklahoma
Missouri at 7 South Carolina
Maryland at 8 West Virginia
18 Michigan at 11 Notre Dame
California at 13 USC
Kentucky at 14 Florida
UAB at 16 Ohio State
Virginia at 17 TCU
Oregon St at 19 UCLA
20 Louisville at FIU
E. Michigan at 21 Michigan St
South Alabama at 23 Mississippi St
Idaho St at 25 Nebraska
(Editor's Note: the C4G blog has no inside knowledge of the music on Dae'Quan Scott's actual ipod, though we respect whatever genre of music gets him pumped for game days. This blog does, however, have inside knowledge of the best FCS runninbacks in the country, and Scott is undoubtedly one of them. This concludes the ego-stroking portion of this blog.)
Monday, September 17, 2012
Hangover: Geno for Heisman
"You'll be at the JMU-WVU game today, right Chase?"
"Tony, I'm leaving the station and going to FedEx."
I looked at the clock. It was 11:51 AM. Nine minutes remained in the show.
Conversation winds down. We pick winners off air (59-24 was my call.) It's 12PM. The show ends. Start wearing purple.
Stop by apartment. I need sunglasses. Bright day.
Stop by Sheetz. I need food. Appetizer Sampler is greater than kissing babies (that reference is only for the poli-sci majors that read this blog).
Run up 81. Run down 66. Get stuck in traffic. Look up metro directions in traffic at standstill. Next train leaves for game at 3:20. It's 3:15.
Park awkwardly in Vienna Metro Parking lot. Which is next to interstate. Also heavily under construction. Am I even at the metro? I don't see any buildings or tunnels.
Stalk people to find metro. Walk into metro. I don't speak Metro-language. Take 10 minutes, learn metro-language.
It's 3:52. The 3:40 train hasn't left yet.
Get off at Armory. See sign that says "Stadium this way!" Leave metro. Wrong stadium. Pay $5 more dollars to get back into metro that I just left.
Get off in suburban Maryland. Walk to FedEx. Walk into FedEx.
WVU 7, JMU 0.
No matter how hard I tried, I couldn't seem to get there before West Virginia scored a touchdown.
It was a feeling the JMU football players could relate to.
After all the talk of repeating 21-16, of taking down the big boys, the inevitable finally happened. JMU's defense played amazing, frankly, as good as you ever could have hoped for against a team with a Heisman frontrunner and an outside shot at an FBS national championship. Still,
I hope JMU fans and students don't feel too disappointed. West Virginia's offense is scary good, and they showed it by scoring 21 points before anyone wearing purple could blink. JMU's pass rush got through a pretty good offensive line somewhat consistently, and that's certainly going to be a strength going forward.
Of course, the Dukes' offense looked stagnant for a vast majority of the game, but WVU's run defense has looked dominant thus far in the season, so no cause for concern there. Against lesser 1-AA defenses, the offense will continue to put up monster numbers.
But the biggest takeaway from this game had less to do with James Madison, and more to do with Geno Smith. West Virginia's quarterback is following the RG3 Heisman mould to the letter. Entering week 4 of the college football season, Geno Smith has 10 total touchdowns and 9 incompletions. With Barkley playing a very mediocre game in a loss to Stanford (more on this later), most of the talking heads agree.
Three weeks in, Geno Smith is the Heisman frontrunner.
#20 Notre Dame 20, #10 Michigan State 3
I don't know what's invigorating this Notre Dame team-- it's clearly not the move to an atrocious ACC, which doesn't even apply to the Irish to begin with as far as football is concerened-- but Notre Dame has looked pretty damn good on its warpath to a 3-0 start. My eyes told me Michigan State was pretty good (or at least the hop-scotch god that Is Le'Veon Bell is), and Notre Dame handled them pretty soundly.
You could make the argument that MSU was never that great to begin with. I thought Boise State was a pretty average team, and the Greek Society against Pedophilia only beat them by four points. So is Sparty good, or should we not be that impressed by this win? It might be a statement win for Notre Dame. It might just be cause for overhype before inevitable blowouts at the hands of Oklahoma and USC. I really don't know for sure.
#13 Virginia Tech 17, Pittsburgh 35
Last week, a good friend coyly asked me how I felt about the Chokies being ranked the 13th best team in college football.
My response? "Well, I guess somebody has to be there in the poll." And that is basically how Tech got to the 13th best ranking- not be winning, not by impressing, but my merely failing to lose.
Enter week 3. I recall saying in the spring that Tech should be weary of this game because Ray Graham is a monster and the Hokies will be offensively challenged. Well, Ray Graham was limited in those first two games- hence why Pittsburgh roughly resembled the big pile of garbage outside my apartment and down the street to this point in the season- but he looks fully recovered from the ACL tear he suffered last October, and boy did he make that super-amazing Beamer-coached defense look pretty terrible.
Both more and less surprisingly was the dominance of the Pitt defense. I know Tech's offense is about as defunct as AIG's bottom line, but seriously? This is a defense that just got torn to shreds by a converted wide receiver named after a side effect of smoking too much weed. How could you possibly be dominated by that?
Tech fans need to accept that even in a conference as week as the ACC, they are bound to have down years. Eerily similar to West Virginia fans, Tech homers have been ruined by the consistency of their program, and they've developed an obnoxiously, outrageously unrealistic expectation to win every game, every year.
The only difference is that West Virginia fans have been punched in the gut for so long in random games that we've learned to temper out expectations a bit.
If your closet is full of maroon, it might just be time to accept this is not your year. You might still win the coastal division, but don't fool yourself. This is a rebuilding year.
On the bright side, ESPN can stop shoving Logan Thomas-Matt Barkley comparisons down my throat.
#14 Texas 66, Mississippi 31
Texas is suddenly the best team in the Big 12 after dropping 60+ points on Ole Miss. Their offense hasn't looked this good in years! Great Scott!
Let's pump the breaks a little bit, guy that clearly never read Friday Night Lights despite the fact that he lives in Texas. Just because you're playing an SEC team doesn't mean you just dropped two thirds of a Satanic number on the NFL's newest expansion team. I don't care what conference they're in, Ole Miss is a bad team. Dropping a season high offensive performance on them has way more to do with their defense, and way less to do with your offense.
You won't see me on here next week proclaiming West Virginia to have the best offense in the land when they drop 400 yards and 65 points on Maryland next week.
Okay, actually you will. Bad example. Let's move on.
CAA Action
This will be a new feature of the Hangover every week, as I will recap Colonial conference play.
Villanova 31, Rhode Island 10
Villanova dominated this game. Bad news for the Rams: Nova isn't that good. JMU is, and they're coming to town this weekend. Buckle up buttercup, because 0-2 is on the way.
Towson 20, William and Mary 17
I obviously did not get to watch this game, but this is a pretty nice win for Towson to open up conference play. William and Mary is probably a .500 or above team in conference, so to win in Williamsburg is a big get for the defending champs. A loss here might have seriously jeopardized their hopes to win a second straight title, judging by how strong ODU and JMU have both looked early on.
That's it for the Hangover this week. Get some sleep and grab some Dasani. You'll need your rest for another West Virginia track meet this upcoming weekend when the Mountaineers beat down the Terps by 50, and I am forced to talk incessantly about it. Again.
"Tony, I'm leaving the station and going to FedEx."
I looked at the clock. It was 11:51 AM. Nine minutes remained in the show.
Conversation winds down. We pick winners off air (59-24 was my call.) It's 12PM. The show ends. Start wearing purple.
Stop by apartment. I need sunglasses. Bright day.
Stop by Sheetz. I need food. Appetizer Sampler is greater than kissing babies (that reference is only for the poli-sci majors that read this blog).
Run up 81. Run down 66. Get stuck in traffic. Look up metro directions in traffic at standstill. Next train leaves for game at 3:20. It's 3:15.
Park awkwardly in Vienna Metro Parking lot. Which is next to interstate. Also heavily under construction. Am I even at the metro? I don't see any buildings or tunnels.
Stalk people to find metro. Walk into metro. I don't speak Metro-language. Take 10 minutes, learn metro-language.
It's 3:52. The 3:40 train hasn't left yet.
Get off at Armory. See sign that says "Stadium this way!" Leave metro. Wrong stadium. Pay $5 more dollars to get back into metro that I just left.
Get off in suburban Maryland. Walk to FedEx. Walk into FedEx.
WVU 7, JMU 0.
No matter how hard I tried, I couldn't seem to get there before West Virginia scored a touchdown.
It was a feeling the JMU football players could relate to.
After all the talk of repeating 21-16, of taking down the big boys, the inevitable finally happened. JMU's defense played amazing, frankly, as good as you ever could have hoped for against a team with a Heisman frontrunner and an outside shot at an FBS national championship. Still,
I hope JMU fans and students don't feel too disappointed. West Virginia's offense is scary good, and they showed it by scoring 21 points before anyone wearing purple could blink. JMU's pass rush got through a pretty good offensive line somewhat consistently, and that's certainly going to be a strength going forward.
Of course, the Dukes' offense looked stagnant for a vast majority of the game, but WVU's run defense has looked dominant thus far in the season, so no cause for concern there. Against lesser 1-AA defenses, the offense will continue to put up monster numbers.
But the biggest takeaway from this game had less to do with James Madison, and more to do with Geno Smith. West Virginia's quarterback is following the RG3 Heisman mould to the letter. Entering week 4 of the college football season, Geno Smith has 10 total touchdowns and 9 incompletions. With Barkley playing a very mediocre game in a loss to Stanford (more on this later), most of the talking heads agree.
Three weeks in, Geno Smith is the Heisman frontrunner.
#20 Notre Dame 20, #10 Michigan State 3
I don't know what's invigorating this Notre Dame team-- it's clearly not the move to an atrocious ACC, which doesn't even apply to the Irish to begin with as far as football is concerened-- but Notre Dame has looked pretty damn good on its warpath to a 3-0 start. My eyes told me Michigan State was pretty good (or at least the hop-scotch god that Is Le'Veon Bell is), and Notre Dame handled them pretty soundly.
You could make the argument that MSU was never that great to begin with. I thought Boise State was a pretty average team, and the Greek Society against Pedophilia only beat them by four points. So is Sparty good, or should we not be that impressed by this win? It might be a statement win for Notre Dame. It might just be cause for overhype before inevitable blowouts at the hands of Oklahoma and USC. I really don't know for sure.
#13 Virginia Tech 17, Pittsburgh 35
Last week, a good friend coyly asked me how I felt about the Chokies being ranked the 13th best team in college football.
My response? "Well, I guess somebody has to be there in the poll." And that is basically how Tech got to the 13th best ranking- not be winning, not by impressing, but my merely failing to lose.
Enter week 3. I recall saying in the spring that Tech should be weary of this game because Ray Graham is a monster and the Hokies will be offensively challenged. Well, Ray Graham was limited in those first two games- hence why Pittsburgh roughly resembled the big pile of garbage outside my apartment and down the street to this point in the season- but he looks fully recovered from the ACL tear he suffered last October, and boy did he make that super-amazing Beamer-coached defense look pretty terrible.
Both more and less surprisingly was the dominance of the Pitt defense. I know Tech's offense is about as defunct as AIG's bottom line, but seriously? This is a defense that just got torn to shreds by a converted wide receiver named after a side effect of smoking too much weed. How could you possibly be dominated by that?
Tech fans need to accept that even in a conference as week as the ACC, they are bound to have down years. Eerily similar to West Virginia fans, Tech homers have been ruined by the consistency of their program, and they've developed an obnoxiously, outrageously unrealistic expectation to win every game, every year.
The only difference is that West Virginia fans have been punched in the gut for so long in random games that we've learned to temper out expectations a bit.
If your closet is full of maroon, it might just be time to accept this is not your year. You might still win the coastal division, but don't fool yourself. This is a rebuilding year.
On the bright side, ESPN can stop shoving Logan Thomas-Matt Barkley comparisons down my throat.
#14 Texas 66, Mississippi 31
Texas is suddenly the best team in the Big 12 after dropping 60+ points on Ole Miss. Their offense hasn't looked this good in years! Great Scott!
Let's pump the breaks a little bit, guy that clearly never read Friday Night Lights despite the fact that he lives in Texas. Just because you're playing an SEC team doesn't mean you just dropped two thirds of a Satanic number on the NFL's newest expansion team. I don't care what conference they're in, Ole Miss is a bad team. Dropping a season high offensive performance on them has way more to do with their defense, and way less to do with your offense.
You won't see me on here next week proclaiming West Virginia to have the best offense in the land when they drop 400 yards and 65 points on Maryland next week.
Okay, actually you will. Bad example. Let's move on.
CAA Action
This will be a new feature of the Hangover every week, as I will recap Colonial conference play.
Villanova 31, Rhode Island 10
Villanova dominated this game. Bad news for the Rams: Nova isn't that good. JMU is, and they're coming to town this weekend. Buckle up buttercup, because 0-2 is on the way.
Towson 20, William and Mary 17
I obviously did not get to watch this game, but this is a pretty nice win for Towson to open up conference play. William and Mary is probably a .500 or above team in conference, so to win in Williamsburg is a big get for the defending champs. A loss here might have seriously jeopardized their hopes to win a second straight title, judging by how strong ODU and JMU have both looked early on.
That's it for the Hangover this week. Get some sleep and grab some Dasani. You'll need your rest for another West Virginia track meet this upcoming weekend when the Mountaineers beat down the Terps by 50, and I am forced to talk incessantly about it. Again.
Friday, September 14, 2012
The FedEx Pregame
To paraphrase Lewis Carroll,
"The time has come," the walrus said, "To talk of many things. Of shoes and ships and sealing wax, and JMU fighting West Virginia on a neutral field of play."
Hey, close enough.
With respect to the snooze-fest that was LSU vs Alabama last November, this is my Game of the Century. I won't be writing a preview for the walking slaughterhouse that is destined to be WVU-JMU-- instead, tune into the JMU Tailgate Pregame Show on 88.7, or the Itunes satellite feed via Internet-- but I will talk about some other games that might actually be close.
Also, shoutout! JMU Sports Blog has done a hilarious preview for the game this weekend, and I encourage you to check it out.
Games To Watch
Alabama at Arkansas
The hate has gone way too far. Arkansas is a flawed but good team with very capable offensive weapons. This team is way better than Michigan, but Tyler Wilson will not play, which means this game is more or less already decided. Look for the hogs to test, if not outright threaten, an Alabama team that certainly deserves the #1 ranking, but is still a tad overhyped.
Also, hey Nick Saban? Stop trying to tell journalists how to do their jobs. kthxbye
USC at Stanford
Everyone wants to make a big deal out of Stanford's record against USC in the past few years, but NEWS FLASH: Stanford has beaten Southern Cal the last three years because they've been a better team. I know, I know, bizarre concept.
This year is clearly a different story. Stanford has lost offensive weapons like Luck and Fleener, and in a tight end centric offense, those are parts 1 and 2 that you don't want to lose. Barkley will be challenged by a Cardinal defense that's still pretty good, but he's ultimately going to win.
But if he doesn't? Oh man. Talk about opening the door for a Big 12 team in the national championship game.
Notre Dame at Michigan State
Notre Dame has looked pretty good early on, but Michigan State will outclass the Irish by shit-talking Tommy Rees on twitter and getting in his head. That stout defense will sack and retweet their way to a win up in East Lansing. Look for Le'Veon Bell to keep running is way toward a late-season trip to the Big Apple.
Wake Forest at Florida State
I remember being at a JMU football game last season and seeing Wake's 2011 win over the Seminoles flash up on the screen. I remember my reaction quite vividly. It was something like "hahaha. haha. haha."
The Double-D's are a sound, if not spectacular team. Straight up, Florida State has more talent in the front 7, and I can't see Wake winning in Tallahassee. Though I would admittedly LOVE it if they did.
Texas at Mississippi
This game will be terrible.
Texas will win.
It's on ESPN.
Don't watch it.
Virginia Tech at Pittsburgh
It makes sense that, on a weekend where both the teams I love play each other, both the teams I hate are also playing each other. Can they both lose?
In all seriousness, this game will likely be ugly and another terribly boring game to watch as a bad offense travels to face an even worse defense.
Pick Against the Breeze
Alright, rough first week. But in my defense, what non-Cowboys fan picked the Stars? Don't bring up Carleigh, she's just weird.
JMU vs WVU
Notre Dame vs Michigan State
Southern Cal vs Stanford
Bears vs Packers
Lions vs 49'ers
Vikings vs Colts
Last Week's Record: 3-3
Top 25 Forecast
1 Alabama at Arkansas
2 USC at 21 Stanford
Idaho at 3 LSU
Tennessee Tech at 4 Oregon
Wake Forest at 5 Florida State
Florida Atlantic at 7 Georgia
UAB at 8 South Carolina
James Madison vs 9 West Virginia
20 Notre Dame at 10 Michigan State
Furman at 11 Clemson
Cal at 12 Ohio State
13 Virginia Tech at Pittsburgh
14 Texas at Ole Miss
North Texas at 15 Kansas State
16 TCU at Kansas
Massachusetts at 17 Michigan
18 Florida at 23 Tennessee
North Carolina at 19 Louisville
Houston at 22 UCLA
South Carolina St at 24 Arizona
25 BYU at Utah
See you all at the tailgate in Maryland! Kia out.
"The time has come," the walrus said, "To talk of many things. Of shoes and ships and sealing wax, and JMU fighting West Virginia on a neutral field of play."
Hey, close enough.
With respect to the snooze-fest that was LSU vs Alabama last November, this is my Game of the Century. I won't be writing a preview for the walking slaughterhouse that is destined to be WVU-JMU-- instead, tune into the JMU Tailgate Pregame Show on 88.7, or the Itunes satellite feed via Internet-- but I will talk about some other games that might actually be close.
Also, shoutout! JMU Sports Blog has done a hilarious preview for the game this weekend, and I encourage you to check it out.
Games To Watch
Alabama at Arkansas
The hate has gone way too far. Arkansas is a flawed but good team with very capable offensive weapons. This team is way better than Michigan, but Tyler Wilson will not play, which means this game is more or less already decided. Look for the hogs to test, if not outright threaten, an Alabama team that certainly deserves the #1 ranking, but is still a tad overhyped.
Also, hey Nick Saban? Stop trying to tell journalists how to do their jobs. kthxbye
USC at Stanford
Everyone wants to make a big deal out of Stanford's record against USC in the past few years, but NEWS FLASH: Stanford has beaten Southern Cal the last three years because they've been a better team. I know, I know, bizarre concept.
This year is clearly a different story. Stanford has lost offensive weapons like Luck and Fleener, and in a tight end centric offense, those are parts 1 and 2 that you don't want to lose. Barkley will be challenged by a Cardinal defense that's still pretty good, but he's ultimately going to win.
But if he doesn't? Oh man. Talk about opening the door for a Big 12 team in the national championship game.
Notre Dame at Michigan State
Notre Dame has looked pretty good early on, but Michigan State will outclass the Irish by shit-talking Tommy Rees on twitter and getting in his head. That stout defense will sack and retweet their way to a win up in East Lansing. Look for Le'Veon Bell to keep running is way toward a late-season trip to the Big Apple.
Wake Forest at Florida State
I remember being at a JMU football game last season and seeing Wake's 2011 win over the Seminoles flash up on the screen. I remember my reaction quite vividly. It was something like "hahaha. haha. haha."
The Double-D's are a sound, if not spectacular team. Straight up, Florida State has more talent in the front 7, and I can't see Wake winning in Tallahassee. Though I would admittedly LOVE it if they did.
Texas at Mississippi
This game will be terrible.
Texas will win.
It's on ESPN.
Don't watch it.
Virginia Tech at Pittsburgh
It makes sense that, on a weekend where both the teams I love play each other, both the teams I hate are also playing each other. Can they both lose?
In all seriousness, this game will likely be ugly and another terribly boring game to watch as a bad offense travels to face an even worse defense.
Pick Against the Breeze
Alright, rough first week. But in my defense, what non-Cowboys fan picked the Stars? Don't bring up Carleigh, she's just weird.
JMU vs WVU
Notre Dame vs Michigan State
Southern Cal vs Stanford
Bears vs Packers
Lions vs 49'ers
Vikings vs Colts
Last Week's Record: 3-3
Top 25 Forecast
1 Alabama at Arkansas
2 USC at 21 Stanford
Idaho at 3 LSU
Tennessee Tech at 4 Oregon
Wake Forest at 5 Florida State
Florida Atlantic at 7 Georgia
UAB at 8 South Carolina
James Madison vs 9 West Virginia
20 Notre Dame at 10 Michigan State
Furman at 11 Clemson
Cal at 12 Ohio State
13 Virginia Tech at Pittsburgh
14 Texas at Ole Miss
North Texas at 15 Kansas State
16 TCU at Kansas
Massachusetts at 17 Michigan
18 Florida at 23 Tennessee
North Carolina at 19 Louisville
Houston at 22 UCLA
South Carolina St at 24 Arizona
25 BYU at Utah
See you all at the tailgate in Maryland! Kia out.
Wednesday, September 12, 2012
10 Things: Fearless Football Predictions for 2012
10 Things is back for the fall as it is every football season, and we're talking football predictions. I usually do this before the season even begins, but because of time constraints, I'm doing this based off some early peeks at the college/nfl seasons.
Honestly, most of these haven't really been affected over the last two weeks anyway.
Check out how I did last year if you want. For a refresher, I successfully predicted the Colts' demise, UVA's resurgence, and the overrated nature of that "massive" Oklahoma-Florida State game, among other things. Otherwise, on to the forecasting:
1. USC will not run the table, and Matt Barkley will not win the Heisman. The Pac-12 has had some surprising outings so far, but Southern Cal is still clearly better than everyone. Better, however, doesn't always win football games. Oregon has the speed and style of play that will disrupt the shaky depth that Southern Cal seems to have. I don't know if it'll be regular season or Pac-12 Championship game, but the Ducks are gonna get the Trojans one of those days this season. The loss makes voters question Barkley as the best quarterback in the country. Someone nicknames the Oregon Ducks "the Heisman-killers."
2. The Redskins will finish last in the NFC East. Crazy impressive start for RG3. Washington finally has some great weapons. But let's not get ahead of ourselves, okay Skins fans? Washington has always played the Saints very strong for whatever reason, and the NFC East is freaking loaaaaaaadddddddddeeeeeedddddddd. Sound it out. That spells loaded. As in you might have six bullets in your revolver, but the other three teams have mounted machine guns up in forts, like at the beginning of Saving Private Ryan. Except this time, the Redskins aren't Tom Hanks; they're that guy that gets shot in the head after he takes his helmet off.
In all seriousness, the Skins will be a much improved team this year and a very tough out. But I'm not sure the schedule reflects that just yet.
3. Oklahoma is overrated... again. If any team not named the Oklahoma Sooners suffered the preseason losses that Oklahoma did, and then played like this team has for the first two weeks of the season, they would not still be ranked as the top team in the Big 12.
4. Matt Ryan will usher in the Greatest Show on Turf, part 2. This isn't an overreaction to a blowout win in Kansas City. I saw this coming about a month ago, maybe even farther back, when I started paying real close attention to Roddy White's twitter account. Granted, White has a very established reputation as a massive big mouth who exaggerates everything. Maybe it's living in Atlanta. (Interpret that however you like.) I don't know. But I bought into the things that were being said, and as more and more people started to indicate that the Falcons wanted to air it out more and more this season, I became a believer. Roddy White and Julio Jones might be two of the top 10 receivers in the entire NFL, so if Matt Ryan can take that step from above average to elite, this will be a very tough team to beat.
5. The East will end the West's recent dominance in the SEC Championship game. A little more on this later. In short: the West is stacked, the East is not, and one team has an incredibly easy path to the championship.
6. The overhyped Seattle Seahawks will get ugly, fast. I don't understand what the big deal is about Seattle this year. Their defense is above average, and that's only when they're at Qwest. Marshawn Lynch is a nice runningback, but who's his backup? Who is one decent receiver? Who is their freaking quarterback? Russell Wilson reminds me a LOT of Pat White, and much to my dismay, we all know how that ended.
7. The Rams and Bills will finish near .500. Jeff Fisher is an awesome coach, that much I know from a casual Tennessee fan's standpoint. The Bills will rebound from a blowout loss to the inept Jets. Both teams have the talent and the leadership to get near .500. I think the Rams finish 7-9 and the Bills finish 8-8.
8. Five rookie quarterbacks start the year; no more than three will finish. Clearly I'm not high on Russell Wilson, and B-Dubs looked absolutely terrible in his first start in Cleveland. I'd say just wait for him to mature, but... oh wait, he's a rookie about to turn 30. Tannehill has the physical presence to be a great quarterback, but needs some serious work on all the little things before he's an NFL-ready quarterback.
RG3 and Andrew Luck? They're the real deal, and will amass 10 wins between the two of them.
9. The Baltimore Ravens will win the Super Bowl, and Ray Lewis will retire after the season. I mean honestly, is this even that bold? I really like the Harbaugh bowl for the Super Bowl this year. Joe Flacco looked very, very on top of his stuff on Sunday. This team was one dropped pass away from playing for the Lombardy trophy last season; they're better than the patriots. It's time to show it.
10. The NCAA National Championship will be a rematch of the 2006 Sugar Bowl:
West Virginia vs Georgia.
After watching Geno Smith vs Marshall, I am convinced he's found it. He's found what Cam Newton, Nick Saban, and Tim Tebow all have had in their respective college games. He won't just search for ways to win; he will win.
This is a prediction that two weeks ago, I would not have made. Frankly, I thought the Big 12 was way too deep for a team to run the table and go undefeated. Oklahoma's flop didn't matter, as I thought we were a better team than them anyway, but games at Texas and Iowa State scared me. Now, I'm convinced we will take care of business on the road. As an additional 10B prediction, let me go on the record saying that the winner of Kansas State at West Virginia will win the Big 12. I do not believe Oklahoma has the talent. As another addition, Texas will beat Kansas State.
Meanwhile, all Georgia has to do to win the East, it seems, is win at South Carolina. In the championship game, I think Georgia has a good, not great defense with a couple elite playmakers that can turn the tide (all you actually need in college football). On offense, Georgia is vastly superior to all teams from the West that haven't lost to Louisiana-Monroe, and that balance helps them win the SEC championship. Regardless of whether there are better teams out there, the SEC's media darling status slides UG into the national championship game. And we've got a rematch of a classic game.
Oh yeah, and Geno Smith will win the Heisman. Because if I'm predicting WVU to play for the crystal trophy, might as well go all here right?
Actually, that's pretty realistic. Geno seems poised to follow very closely to the model Cam Newton and particularly RG3 have the past two years. So this one, I'm surprisingly sure of, or at least as sure as you can be about a Heisman after Week 2-- which as it turns out is pretty sure. I have predicted the last three Heisman winners before the end of September. In Griffin's case, I said after that Week 1 TCU game that he'd win.
So there it is. I'm sure a few of you want to bash the homer picks so... you know, go ahead with that. Just... can we stop with the Xbox Live text messages? Because that's weird.
Honestly, most of these haven't really been affected over the last two weeks anyway.
Check out how I did last year if you want. For a refresher, I successfully predicted the Colts' demise, UVA's resurgence, and the overrated nature of that "massive" Oklahoma-Florida State game, among other things. Otherwise, on to the forecasting:
1. USC will not run the table, and Matt Barkley will not win the Heisman. The Pac-12 has had some surprising outings so far, but Southern Cal is still clearly better than everyone. Better, however, doesn't always win football games. Oregon has the speed and style of play that will disrupt the shaky depth that Southern Cal seems to have. I don't know if it'll be regular season or Pac-12 Championship game, but the Ducks are gonna get the Trojans one of those days this season. The loss makes voters question Barkley as the best quarterback in the country. Someone nicknames the Oregon Ducks "the Heisman-killers."
2. The Redskins will finish last in the NFC East. Crazy impressive start for RG3. Washington finally has some great weapons. But let's not get ahead of ourselves, okay Skins fans? Washington has always played the Saints very strong for whatever reason, and the NFC East is freaking loaaaaaaadddddddddeeeeeedddddddd. Sound it out. That spells loaded. As in you might have six bullets in your revolver, but the other three teams have mounted machine guns up in forts, like at the beginning of Saving Private Ryan. Except this time, the Redskins aren't Tom Hanks; they're that guy that gets shot in the head after he takes his helmet off.
In all seriousness, the Skins will be a much improved team this year and a very tough out. But I'm not sure the schedule reflects that just yet.
3. Oklahoma is overrated... again. If any team not named the Oklahoma Sooners suffered the preseason losses that Oklahoma did, and then played like this team has for the first two weeks of the season, they would not still be ranked as the top team in the Big 12.
4. Matt Ryan will usher in the Greatest Show on Turf, part 2. This isn't an overreaction to a blowout win in Kansas City. I saw this coming about a month ago, maybe even farther back, when I started paying real close attention to Roddy White's twitter account. Granted, White has a very established reputation as a massive big mouth who exaggerates everything. Maybe it's living in Atlanta. (Interpret that however you like.) I don't know. But I bought into the things that were being said, and as more and more people started to indicate that the Falcons wanted to air it out more and more this season, I became a believer. Roddy White and Julio Jones might be two of the top 10 receivers in the entire NFL, so if Matt Ryan can take that step from above average to elite, this will be a very tough team to beat.
5. The East will end the West's recent dominance in the SEC Championship game. A little more on this later. In short: the West is stacked, the East is not, and one team has an incredibly easy path to the championship.
6. The overhyped Seattle Seahawks will get ugly, fast. I don't understand what the big deal is about Seattle this year. Their defense is above average, and that's only when they're at Qwest. Marshawn Lynch is a nice runningback, but who's his backup? Who is one decent receiver? Who is their freaking quarterback? Russell Wilson reminds me a LOT of Pat White, and much to my dismay, we all know how that ended.
7. The Rams and Bills will finish near .500. Jeff Fisher is an awesome coach, that much I know from a casual Tennessee fan's standpoint. The Bills will rebound from a blowout loss to the inept Jets. Both teams have the talent and the leadership to get near .500. I think the Rams finish 7-9 and the Bills finish 8-8.
8. Five rookie quarterbacks start the year; no more than three will finish. Clearly I'm not high on Russell Wilson, and B-Dubs looked absolutely terrible in his first start in Cleveland. I'd say just wait for him to mature, but... oh wait, he's a rookie about to turn 30. Tannehill has the physical presence to be a great quarterback, but needs some serious work on all the little things before he's an NFL-ready quarterback.
RG3 and Andrew Luck? They're the real deal, and will amass 10 wins between the two of them.
9. The Baltimore Ravens will win the Super Bowl, and Ray Lewis will retire after the season. I mean honestly, is this even that bold? I really like the Harbaugh bowl for the Super Bowl this year. Joe Flacco looked very, very on top of his stuff on Sunday. This team was one dropped pass away from playing for the Lombardy trophy last season; they're better than the patriots. It's time to show it.
10. The NCAA National Championship will be a rematch of the 2006 Sugar Bowl:
West Virginia vs Georgia.
After watching Geno Smith vs Marshall, I am convinced he's found it. He's found what Cam Newton, Nick Saban, and Tim Tebow all have had in their respective college games. He won't just search for ways to win; he will win.
This is a prediction that two weeks ago, I would not have made. Frankly, I thought the Big 12 was way too deep for a team to run the table and go undefeated. Oklahoma's flop didn't matter, as I thought we were a better team than them anyway, but games at Texas and Iowa State scared me. Now, I'm convinced we will take care of business on the road. As an additional 10B prediction, let me go on the record saying that the winner of Kansas State at West Virginia will win the Big 12. I do not believe Oklahoma has the talent. As another addition, Texas will beat Kansas State.
Meanwhile, all Georgia has to do to win the East, it seems, is win at South Carolina. In the championship game, I think Georgia has a good, not great defense with a couple elite playmakers that can turn the tide (all you actually need in college football). On offense, Georgia is vastly superior to all teams from the West that haven't lost to Louisiana-Monroe, and that balance helps them win the SEC championship. Regardless of whether there are better teams out there, the SEC's media darling status slides UG into the national championship game. And we've got a rematch of a classic game.
Oh yeah, and Geno Smith will win the Heisman. Because if I'm predicting WVU to play for the crystal trophy, might as well go all here right?
Actually, that's pretty realistic. Geno seems poised to follow very closely to the model Cam Newton and particularly RG3 have the past two years. So this one, I'm surprisingly sure of, or at least as sure as you can be about a Heisman after Week 2-- which as it turns out is pretty sure. I have predicted the last three Heisman winners before the end of September. In Griffin's case, I said after that Week 1 TCU game that he'd win.
So there it is. I'm sure a few of you want to bash the homer picks so... you know, go ahead with that. Just... can we stop with the Xbox Live text messages? Because that's weird.
Monday, September 10, 2012
Hangover: The Big 10 Needs some Water
There was a period of time not so long ago that, despite a few SEC National Championships, the Big 10 prided themselves on being arguably the strongest conference in football.
It's safe to say that time has come and gone.
Alcorn State 3, JMU 42
If you listened to me on the radio on Saturday morning, I predicted that, despite a sloppy start, JMU would win by a score of 48-10. After watching the game on Saturday, I'd have to say I was pretty much dead on here. JMU completely outclassed Alcorn State, as well they should have. The Dukes are not in the Braves' league. They're not even in the same galaxy, as was evidenced by ASU coach Jay Hopson naming JMU the best 1AA program they'ved played in 20+ years, as well as specifically naming the 2012 iteration of the Dukes the best team in college football.
JMU throttling Alcorn State isn't news. I barely even need to write about it here, other than to acknowledge that the players took the field Saturday night and that I tailgated through what was nearly a flash flood in the hours leading up to the game. No, the news here is the injury to tailback Dae'Quan Scott. The roommates and I were a little concerned for his health, so I hit up some sources to get the deets here.
Good news folks. Scott estimates he'll be back on the field in about two days. That's noteworthy, because JMU will need all the help they can get at FedEx this weekend.
I could go into JMU-WVU this weekend, but I will save that for later in the week. Tony and I will definitely talk about the game extensively on radio, and I've got a column coming out Thursday that will talk about the game extensively, so just follow me throughout the week to catch some snippets regarding the September 15 showdown that has unofficially been dubbed the Chase Kiddy bowl.
Louisiana-Monroe 34, #8 Arkansas 31
Tyler Wilson is a good quarterback. Arkansas has a good offense. But just like Michigan, and as we will find out soon, just like Oklahoma, Arkansas was massively overhyped this past offseason. Personally, I think any competent offense in the SEC is capable of becoming a media darling just because it's such a contrarian way to play in that conference these days.
I don't wanna take anything away from ULM because it's a solid if not spectacular team, but the truth of the matter is that this is a team JMU would beat 4 or 5 times out of 10 at minimum. Maybe JMU is a bad benchmark to use because they're so incredibly good this year, but tegardless, a top team Arkansas is not.
All that being said, the Hogs dropping out of the top 25 is a massive overreaction. Tyler Wilson got knocked out of the game for crying out loud. This team will rebound.
#18 Oklahoma State 38, #22 Arizona 59
There are three things that everyone learned from this game, and I already knew all three.
1. It is very hard to replace two first round draft picks and still be an elite, BCS-level team.
2. Wes Lunt is a capable quarterback, especially for a true freshman, but Oklahoma State is not a true Big 12 title threat.
3. Rich Rodriguez is very good at designing offense, and if you want to beat him, you better be prepared to outscore him. You'd think Gundy would be prepared for something like that, but clearly Arizona was more prepared than he expected.
So what's up with the Big 10? Here's a slate of games that made me scratch my head.
#13 Wisconsin 7, Oregon State 10.
The two-time reigning Big 10 Champs almost just got shut out by Oregon State. OREGON STATE, PEOPLE. This is a team that lost to an FCS school last year. A bad one.
Maybe it's time to accept that Danny O'Brien just actually isn't that good, and stealing ACC quarterbacks might not be a reliable offensive scheme.
Montee Ball, kiss that Heisman good-bye.
#16 Nebraska 30, UCLA 36
Nebraska was my preseason pick to win the conference-- probably because Taylor Martinez reminds me of Pat White-- so I am a little surprised by this.
Then again, if you caught my tongue-in-cheek, Big-10-usually-sucks-on-the-west-coast-and-should-probably-stay-in-the-midwest-if-they-want-to-continue-winning reference in the pregame, you know I'm not really that surprised.
Penn State 16, UVA 17
UVA is a good team. 8-win team. No shame in losing to the Cavs in the Ville.
Wait, Penn State's kicker was 1/5 on field goals? He missed an extra point after a touchdown?
Okay... maybe a little shame then.
Seriously here, when guys started defecting, everyone talked about Silas Redd and how it was such a huge loss to Penn State's depth at runningback. I was more concerned with the loss of their starting kicker over a backup skill position guy. Looks like I was right again. Thanks twitter! You contine to make me look smart and dumb, all at the same time.
Iowa State 9, Iowa 6
Just... wow. #takeanap
Much like Wisconsin, the Hawkeyes are as bad as they seemed in week 1.
Not many other good scores from the weekend. Lots of crappy games to be honest. We'll do some predictions later this week, check back then.
It's safe to say that time has come and gone.
Alcorn State 3, JMU 42
If you listened to me on the radio on Saturday morning, I predicted that, despite a sloppy start, JMU would win by a score of 48-10. After watching the game on Saturday, I'd have to say I was pretty much dead on here. JMU completely outclassed Alcorn State, as well they should have. The Dukes are not in the Braves' league. They're not even in the same galaxy, as was evidenced by ASU coach Jay Hopson naming JMU the best 1AA program they'ved played in 20+ years, as well as specifically naming the 2012 iteration of the Dukes the best team in college football.
JMU throttling Alcorn State isn't news. I barely even need to write about it here, other than to acknowledge that the players took the field Saturday night and that I tailgated through what was nearly a flash flood in the hours leading up to the game. No, the news here is the injury to tailback Dae'Quan Scott. The roommates and I were a little concerned for his health, so I hit up some sources to get the deets here.
Good news folks. Scott estimates he'll be back on the field in about two days. That's noteworthy, because JMU will need all the help they can get at FedEx this weekend.
I could go into JMU-WVU this weekend, but I will save that for later in the week. Tony and I will definitely talk about the game extensively on radio, and I've got a column coming out Thursday that will talk about the game extensively, so just follow me throughout the week to catch some snippets regarding the September 15 showdown that has unofficially been dubbed the Chase Kiddy bowl.
Louisiana-Monroe 34, #8 Arkansas 31
Tyler Wilson is a good quarterback. Arkansas has a good offense. But just like Michigan, and as we will find out soon, just like Oklahoma, Arkansas was massively overhyped this past offseason. Personally, I think any competent offense in the SEC is capable of becoming a media darling just because it's such a contrarian way to play in that conference these days.
I don't wanna take anything away from ULM because it's a solid if not spectacular team, but the truth of the matter is that this is a team JMU would beat 4 or 5 times out of 10 at minimum. Maybe JMU is a bad benchmark to use because they're so incredibly good this year, but tegardless, a top team Arkansas is not.
All that being said, the Hogs dropping out of the top 25 is a massive overreaction. Tyler Wilson got knocked out of the game for crying out loud. This team will rebound.
#18 Oklahoma State 38, #22 Arizona 59
There are three things that everyone learned from this game, and I already knew all three.
1. It is very hard to replace two first round draft picks and still be an elite, BCS-level team.
2. Wes Lunt is a capable quarterback, especially for a true freshman, but Oklahoma State is not a true Big 12 title threat.
3. Rich Rodriguez is very good at designing offense, and if you want to beat him, you better be prepared to outscore him. You'd think Gundy would be prepared for something like that, but clearly Arizona was more prepared than he expected.
So what's up with the Big 10? Here's a slate of games that made me scratch my head.
#13 Wisconsin 7, Oregon State 10.
The two-time reigning Big 10 Champs almost just got shut out by Oregon State. OREGON STATE, PEOPLE. This is a team that lost to an FCS school last year. A bad one.
Maybe it's time to accept that Danny O'Brien just actually isn't that good, and stealing ACC quarterbacks might not be a reliable offensive scheme.
Montee Ball, kiss that Heisman good-bye.
#16 Nebraska 30, UCLA 36
Nebraska was my preseason pick to win the conference-- probably because Taylor Martinez reminds me of Pat White-- so I am a little surprised by this.
Then again, if you caught my tongue-in-cheek, Big-10-usually-sucks-on-the-west-coast-and-should-probably-stay-in-the-midwest-if-they-want-to-continue-winning reference in the pregame, you know I'm not really that surprised.
Penn State 16, UVA 17
UVA is a good team. 8-win team. No shame in losing to the Cavs in the Ville.
Wait, Penn State's kicker was 1/5 on field goals? He missed an extra point after a touchdown?
Okay... maybe a little shame then.
Seriously here, when guys started defecting, everyone talked about Silas Redd and how it was such a huge loss to Penn State's depth at runningback. I was more concerned with the loss of their starting kicker over a backup skill position guy. Looks like I was right again. Thanks twitter! You contine to make me look smart and dumb, all at the same time.
Iowa State 9, Iowa 6
Just... wow. #takeanap
Much like Wisconsin, the Hawkeyes are as bad as they seemed in week 1.
Not many other good scores from the weekend. Lots of crappy games to be honest. We'll do some predictions later this week, check back then.
Friday, September 7, 2012
Pregaming for Radio!
Woo-Hoo! Gonna be on the radio tomorrow!
I will be joining my colleague Tony Schaffner on the JMU pregame radio & tailgate show to talk sports for an hour or so tomorrow, probably 11-12. (Frequent twitter checks might be necessary.)
Tune in to WXJM student radio at 88.7 if you're in Harrisonburg, or you can go here to bring me up on internet satellite. Listening to my voice will be pretty weird if you're a regular reader, but let's change it up here? Change of pace is good, so I'm told.
We'll be talking DMV baseball (let's go Orioles!), probably a little NFL, and obviously how badly JMU is gonna whoop on Alcorn State. The whole show I'll be pretending I'm a part of Radio Free Roscoe, so it'll be a good time. And if you followed that reference, shoot me a text so I know who to buy the ring for.
On to the pregame!
Games To Watch
Central Florida at Ohio State
Ohio State looked pretty lethal in game 1 against in-state competitor Miami of Ohio. But what about a team with an actual defense to its credit? I don't think UCF will win or anything, I'm just interested in seeing how Central Florida limits Urban's spread, as well as how Braxton Miller progresses as a quarterback.
Austin Peay at Virginia Tech
All I'm saying is that the last time Virginia Tech played a Monday night game and then an FCS school on Saturday... we all know what happened.
In all seriousness, Austin Peay is not JMU and Tech will not lose this game. But Tech's loss to JMU was as much a product of poor play as it was a short week. You have to wonder what the Virginia Tech Athletic Department is thinking, repeating the same mistakes of old so soon.
Florida at Texas A&M
What Aggies team are we gonna get here? I honestly have no idea. But as A&M opens SEC play, you've gotta wonder if they went to the SEC to compete for championships, or hang out at the side of the party by the food table and just eat carrots and ranch dressing.
Nebraska at UCLA
Is Nebraska for real? I'd like to know, as they're my pick to win the Big 10. Midwest teams don't do particularly well out on the west coast... but I mean, it's just UCLA, right?
Georgia at Missouri
Similar to above, but with a twist. Georgia supposedly must sit four starters. Out in Missouri, will the Tigers have enough to upset the Dawgs?
Sorry, for SEC clarification: the Missouri Tigers have enough to upset the Georgia bulldogs. Honestly SEC people, can you pick some more original mascots instead of using the same five animals? My guy carries a gun. Just saying.
Oklahoma State at Arizona
Interested to see how Wes Lunt does here in a game where he likely won't put up 80-some points. Plus I hear Arizona fields a defense, too! What a novelty. Shoutout to RichRod, hope you lose by a lot.
Pick against the Breeze
So this is a new segment that I'm totally doing without my editors permission. They'll get over it, likely because they're too busy to be reading this blog.
Every Thursday, the Breeze highlights six sports matchups and allows their editors to go at it. I have loved playing against them ever since I was a freshman, without their knowledge of course.
(Hint: I always beat them, except for David Barton. I believe I tied him over the course of Fall 2011.)
JMU vs Alcorn
UVA vs Penn St
Cowboys vs Giants
Redskins vs Saints
Panthers vs Bucs
Ravens vs Bengals
Obviously you're on your honor with the Giants-Cowboys pick, but feel free to leave your picks in the comment sections, or keep track at home.
Top 25 Forecast
Here's my picks for the weekend:
W. Kentuck at 1 Alabama
2 USC at Syracuse
Washington at 3 LSU
Fresno St at 4 Oregon
Florida A&M at 5 Oklahoma
Savannah State at 6 FSU
7 Georgia at Missouri
Louisiana-Monroe at 8 Arkansas
East Carolina at 9 South Carolina
11 Michigan St at Central Michigan
Ball State at 12 Clemson
13 Wisconsin at Oregon St
UCF at 14 Ohio St
Austin Peay at 15 Virginia Tech
16 Nebraska at UCLA
New Mexico at 17 Texas
18 Oklahoma St at Arizona
Air Force at 19 Michigan
Grambling St at 20 TCU
Miami (Fl) at 21 Kansas St
Purdue at 22 Notre Dame
Missouri St at 23 Louisville
24 Florida at Texas A&M
Duke at 25 Stanford
Have a great weekend, tune in to some radio, and I'll see you all back here Sunday.
I will be joining my colleague Tony Schaffner on the JMU pregame radio & tailgate show to talk sports for an hour or so tomorrow, probably 11-12. (Frequent twitter checks might be necessary.)
Tune in to WXJM student radio at 88.7 if you're in Harrisonburg, or you can go here to bring me up on internet satellite. Listening to my voice will be pretty weird if you're a regular reader, but let's change it up here? Change of pace is good, so I'm told.
We'll be talking DMV baseball (let's go Orioles!), probably a little NFL, and obviously how badly JMU is gonna whoop on Alcorn State. The whole show I'll be pretending I'm a part of Radio Free Roscoe, so it'll be a good time. And if you followed that reference, shoot me a text so I know who to buy the ring for.
On to the pregame!
Games To Watch
Central Florida at Ohio State
Ohio State looked pretty lethal in game 1 against in-state competitor Miami of Ohio. But what about a team with an actual defense to its credit? I don't think UCF will win or anything, I'm just interested in seeing how Central Florida limits Urban's spread, as well as how Braxton Miller progresses as a quarterback.
Austin Peay at Virginia Tech
All I'm saying is that the last time Virginia Tech played a Monday night game and then an FCS school on Saturday... we all know what happened.
In all seriousness, Austin Peay is not JMU and Tech will not lose this game. But Tech's loss to JMU was as much a product of poor play as it was a short week. You have to wonder what the Virginia Tech Athletic Department is thinking, repeating the same mistakes of old so soon.
Florida at Texas A&M
What Aggies team are we gonna get here? I honestly have no idea. But as A&M opens SEC play, you've gotta wonder if they went to the SEC to compete for championships, or hang out at the side of the party by the food table and just eat carrots and ranch dressing.
Nebraska at UCLA
Is Nebraska for real? I'd like to know, as they're my pick to win the Big 10. Midwest teams don't do particularly well out on the west coast... but I mean, it's just UCLA, right?
Georgia at Missouri
Similar to above, but with a twist. Georgia supposedly must sit four starters. Out in Missouri, will the Tigers have enough to upset the Dawgs?
Sorry, for SEC clarification: the Missouri Tigers have enough to upset the Georgia bulldogs. Honestly SEC people, can you pick some more original mascots instead of using the same five animals? My guy carries a gun. Just saying.
Oklahoma State at Arizona
Interested to see how Wes Lunt does here in a game where he likely won't put up 80-some points. Plus I hear Arizona fields a defense, too! What a novelty. Shoutout to RichRod, hope you lose by a lot.
Pick against the Breeze
So this is a new segment that I'm totally doing without my editors permission. They'll get over it, likely because they're too busy to be reading this blog.
Every Thursday, the Breeze highlights six sports matchups and allows their editors to go at it. I have loved playing against them ever since I was a freshman, without their knowledge of course.
(Hint: I always beat them, except for David Barton. I believe I tied him over the course of Fall 2011.)
JMU vs Alcorn
UVA vs Penn St
Cowboys vs Giants
Redskins vs Saints
Panthers vs Bucs
Ravens vs Bengals
Obviously you're on your honor with the Giants-Cowboys pick, but feel free to leave your picks in the comment sections, or keep track at home.
Top 25 Forecast
Here's my picks for the weekend:
W. Kentuck at 1 Alabama
2 USC at Syracuse
Washington at 3 LSU
Fresno St at 4 Oregon
Florida A&M at 5 Oklahoma
Savannah State at 6 FSU
7 Georgia at Missouri
Louisiana-Monroe at 8 Arkansas
East Carolina at 9 South Carolina
11 Michigan St at Central Michigan
Ball State at 12 Clemson
13 Wisconsin at Oregon St
UCF at 14 Ohio St
Austin Peay at 15 Virginia Tech
16 Nebraska at UCLA
New Mexico at 17 Texas
18 Oklahoma St at Arizona
Air Force at 19 Michigan
Grambling St at 20 TCU
Miami (Fl) at 21 Kansas St
Purdue at 22 Notre Dame
Missouri St at 23 Louisville
24 Florida at Texas A&M
Duke at 25 Stanford
Have a great weekend, tune in to some radio, and I'll see you all back here Sunday.
Sunday, September 2, 2012
First Hangover
Yesterday was September 1, which means COLLEGE FOOTBALL IS HERE!
Honestly, do I really even need to say anything else?
Whether you're new to the blog or it's just been a while, take note-- this is a recurring segment that takes place on Sundays in season. We'll look back at some notable scores and performances, and yours truly will offer some insight and guidance into what it all means.
Of course, as I spend between 8 and 10 hours watching football every Saturday, I typically end up blowing off a huge amount of work every weekend that I should otherwise be concentrating on. Now, as Sunday night rolls around, I realize I've got monster lists of things I need to do, like code entire document templates and oh yeah, buy groceries so I don't starve.
Oh well, I do it in the name of love. Love of football, that is.
In the meantime... I guess I'm hungover.
#11 WVU 69, Marshall 34
So I've decided to start all my 2012 Hangover entries with analysis of the most recent West Virginia game. This is about 20% because I am a raging homer, and 80% because-- in a completely unforseeable series of events-- the various branches of my family tree know some people, who work with these guys, whose cable guy's wife's second cousin's step-daughters boyfriend's dad reads my stuff. In fact, him and about half of the good folks of the Mountain State (the ones that actually have Internet, mind you) have somehow found their way to this blog.
Okay, clearly I exaggerate for effect, but really here-- I was at my cousin Allie's wedding a few weeks back, and one of my uncles told me he got everybody at his job to start reading this blog. Reguarly. Evidently this is some sort of religious experience for people I am related too. I am equally grateful and mystified. You guys know I'm just belching out facts in a quirky manner, right? Add in some sophistry and misplaced ego, and damn it Rachel Ray if you didn't just cook up this entire blog in front of a live studio audience.
Anyway, West Virginia really romped this weekend. In a debut weekend where a lot of offenses looked pretty flat, Geno Smith threw more touchdowns than incompletions. This offense, which essentially brings everyone back from last year's Orange Bowlparty win, has now scored 139 points in its last two games.
And before you go all "Oh Chase, it's just Marshall" on me, Marshall won a bowl game last year. Over a team with NFL draft picks. And they bring back more starters than WVU did. And then they made them look like shit.
Don't talk about the defense, because our third string was in before the end of the third quarter. When we play Nick Florence in late September, we can talk about the defense. The starters will actually stay on the field against Baylor.
#5 JMU 55, St Francis (PA) 7
For all my JMU readers, let me just say-- this is everything you could have wanted. The defense was literally impenetrable, the running game was dynamic, and the Thorpe-Barlow passing connection-- the only one that actually matters for anything-- seemed to be present and accounted for.
I'm gonna be at Alcorn State next Saturday, and I hope to see all of you out there too.
I'm (obviously) going to the West Virginia game in DC, and you're welcome at my tailgate.
Let's be real though. The JMU football season doesn't really start until the Dukes head up to Rhode Island. Hit the snooze button through September, if you so desire.
The real party starts on October 6.
#9 South Carolina 17, Vanderbilt 13
First of all, let's start with the breaking news: Steve Spurrier has remarked very, very recently that Carolina quarterback Connor Shaw can barely lift his arm and will be missing some practice this week. He took a late hit after rolling out of the pocket in Thursday night's game just before halftime in a typical SEC snoozer, one where the Gamecocks barely eeked out a win behind Lattimore's 100+ yards and 2 td's.
Lattimore looked good, all things considered. But he didn't look great. Add in Shaw being banged up already and that's not good news for a squad who just can't seem to dodge the injuries.
Good news- SC doesn't play a real team for three weeks. They can survive without Shaw as they tear up the defenses of East Carolina and UAB.
Missouri and Georgia in late September/early October might be a different story.
#24 Boise State 13, #13 Michigan State 17
You're thinking it; I'll say it. Thank God someone finally beat those blue-fielded ass holes from Idaho.
In all seriousness, Boise has no business being ranked in the Top 25. Kellen Moore and Chris Peterson are the only two guys making the Broncos any good, and the only guy wearing pads and a helmet has finally pissed his eligibility away. Peterson will keep Boise head and shoulders above the rest of the miserable programs they play against, but against a bona fide Big 10 contender? I don't think so. Thanks for playing, but now you should go back to beating up on overhyped east coast teams.
#8 Michigan 14, #2 Alabama 41.
Look, Meeeeechigan is exactly who I thought they would be- a top tier Big 10 team that will contend but not win the conference and get embarassed when they play a top program.
Michigan played this game without their starting runningback. Nick Saban had 6 months to prepare for this game. No analysis is even required on my part.
Warning: We are now entering a hate-fueled rage against the ACC. Any Virginia Tech fans or general ACC sympathizers, your conference still sucks. You have been warned.
NC State 21, Tennessee 35
Please remind me why NC State was my upset pick of the week?
I really like Mike Glennon, I think he's a top notch quarterback. One of the best in the nation. There are some really nice pieces on defense too. But this team needs some time before its actually gonna be worthy of some legitimate quiet, sleeper-style hype.
North Carolina 62, Elon 0
This is purely out of fairness that I'm even mentioning this score here. No one is impressed by this. No offense, D-Will.
William and Mary 6, Maryland 7
How many CAA schools are going to push Maryland to the brink in my college career? William and Mary would not only have beaten the Terps without their fourth-quarter go-ahead touchdown, they would have shut them out IN COLLEGE PARK. And JMU takes them to overtime my Freshman year, also in College Park? Good grief. Don't even show up to the buzzsaw West Virginia is gonna put the Turtles through in three weeks.
I learned a lot more about W&M in this game than I did the Ter(rible Ter)ps. Tribe might be back to compete for a title this year. They probably won't win one, but they look like a legit sleeper.
Murray State 3, #7 Florida State 69
The Sems are the only team to match WVU's week 1 offensive output. Too bad they did it against an FCS team, and one from a pretty terrible FCS conference at that. Not impressed... not yet.
#14 Clemson 26, Auburn 19
I refuse to believe in Florida State and their perennially overrated nature. I picked Clemson to repeat as ACC champions in the preseason, and this was a nice feather for their cap.
Then again, any win at all is a nice bounceback after you lost 70-33 in your last game. Just saying.
Georgia Tech at #16 Virginia Tech
So this game is actually Monday night and hasn't happened yet, but I'm putting Tech on upset alert. Their defense is stout and deserves all the praise it's getting, but triple options are always tricky beasts to handle. Logan Thomas isn't nearly as good as people suddenly seem to think he is. I think Tech is going to take a step back this year because of graduation and reasons out of their control. They just don't have the guys there on offense this year. For those reasons, this would actually be a huge win, if they can pull it out.
Oh, and one other thing- Tech will play in ESPN's yearly week one Monday night game, and follow that up with a week 2 Saturday game at home against an FCS squad. Kind of seems like a short week, right?
Nah, I'm sure they'll be fine. After all, it's not like they're gonna lose to an FCS team at home, right?
Other Scores Worthy of Your Attention
Kentucky 14, #25 Louisville 32
Yes, they're in the Big East. Yes, I hope they move to the Big 12. Yes, the hype is for real.
McNeese St 27, Middle Tennessee 21; Eastern Washington 20, Idaho 3
FCS beats FBS. This is office trivia people. You just won $5. You're welcome.
Washington State 6, BYU 30
Boy am I excited to see Mike Leach turn the Cougar program around. Bang up job so far.
San Jose St 17, #21 Stanford 20
Some people say the Stanford Cardinals are so much more than Andrew Luck. Some people say they're still gonna be a top 25 program.
Some people are wrong.
Notre Dame 50, Navy 10
Relevancy to be determined.
Northern Iowa 21, #12 Wisconsin 26
I was having trouble deciding whether I liked Nebraska or Wisconsin to win the Big 10. I was going to flip a coin. I think that might no longer be necessary.
Youngstown St 31, Pitt 17
Suddenly, Paul Chryst doesn't think Todd Graham is such an ass hole.
Wyoming 17, #15 Texas 37
This game was way closer than the score looks, which begs the question-- why do people have Texas in a freaking BCS bowl? Just saying, if you're defense is so legendary, you probably shouldn't give up 17 to one of the worst offenses in the country.
#4 Oklahoma 24, UTEP 7
Another game that was way closer than it looks. Sooners did not look like the best team in the Big 12. They certainly didn't look like the fourth best team in the country.
That's about it for this week's hangover. One final thing for my fellow Dukes before I go- a quick shoutout to JMUSB. If you don't read these guys regularly, start checking them out. They're quick-witted and gaining a more-than-modest following. Every week you can find previews, commentary, and most importantly, their beer of the week for tailgates.
It's good to have your priorities straight.
Honestly, do I really even need to say anything else?
Whether you're new to the blog or it's just been a while, take note-- this is a recurring segment that takes place on Sundays in season. We'll look back at some notable scores and performances, and yours truly will offer some insight and guidance into what it all means.
Of course, as I spend between 8 and 10 hours watching football every Saturday, I typically end up blowing off a huge amount of work every weekend that I should otherwise be concentrating on. Now, as Sunday night rolls around, I realize I've got monster lists of things I need to do, like code entire document templates and oh yeah, buy groceries so I don't starve.
Oh well, I do it in the name of love. Love of football, that is.
In the meantime... I guess I'm hungover.
#11 WVU 69, Marshall 34
So I've decided to start all my 2012 Hangover entries with analysis of the most recent West Virginia game. This is about 20% because I am a raging homer, and 80% because-- in a completely unforseeable series of events-- the various branches of my family tree know some people, who work with these guys, whose cable guy's wife's second cousin's step-daughters boyfriend's dad reads my stuff. In fact, him and about half of the good folks of the Mountain State (the ones that actually have Internet, mind you) have somehow found their way to this blog.
Okay, clearly I exaggerate for effect, but really here-- I was at my cousin Allie's wedding a few weeks back, and one of my uncles told me he got everybody at his job to start reading this blog. Reguarly. Evidently this is some sort of religious experience for people I am related too. I am equally grateful and mystified. You guys know I'm just belching out facts in a quirky manner, right? Add in some sophistry and misplaced ego, and damn it Rachel Ray if you didn't just cook up this entire blog in front of a live studio audience.
Anyway, West Virginia really romped this weekend. In a debut weekend where a lot of offenses looked pretty flat, Geno Smith threw more touchdowns than incompletions. This offense, which essentially brings everyone back from last year's Orange Bowl
And before you go all "Oh Chase, it's just Marshall" on me, Marshall won a bowl game last year. Over a team with NFL draft picks. And they bring back more starters than WVU did. And then they made them look like shit.
Don't talk about the defense, because our third string was in before the end of the third quarter. When we play Nick Florence in late September, we can talk about the defense. The starters will actually stay on the field against Baylor.
#5 JMU 55, St Francis (PA) 7
For all my JMU readers, let me just say-- this is everything you could have wanted. The defense was literally impenetrable, the running game was dynamic, and the Thorpe-Barlow passing connection-- the only one that actually matters for anything-- seemed to be present and accounted for.
I'm gonna be at Alcorn State next Saturday, and I hope to see all of you out there too.
I'm (obviously) going to the West Virginia game in DC, and you're welcome at my tailgate.
Let's be real though. The JMU football season doesn't really start until the Dukes head up to Rhode Island. Hit the snooze button through September, if you so desire.
The real party starts on October 6.
#9 South Carolina 17, Vanderbilt 13
First of all, let's start with the breaking news: Steve Spurrier has remarked very, very recently that Carolina quarterback Connor Shaw can barely lift his arm and will be missing some practice this week. He took a late hit after rolling out of the pocket in Thursday night's game just before halftime in a typical SEC snoozer, one where the Gamecocks barely eeked out a win behind Lattimore's 100+ yards and 2 td's.
Lattimore looked good, all things considered. But he didn't look great. Add in Shaw being banged up already and that's not good news for a squad who just can't seem to dodge the injuries.
Good news- SC doesn't play a real team for three weeks. They can survive without Shaw as they tear up the defenses of East Carolina and UAB.
Missouri and Georgia in late September/early October might be a different story.
#24 Boise State 13, #13 Michigan State 17
You're thinking it; I'll say it. Thank God someone finally beat those blue-fielded ass holes from Idaho.
In all seriousness, Boise has no business being ranked in the Top 25. Kellen Moore and Chris Peterson are the only two guys making the Broncos any good, and the only guy wearing pads and a helmet has finally pissed his eligibility away. Peterson will keep Boise head and shoulders above the rest of the miserable programs they play against, but against a bona fide Big 10 contender? I don't think so. Thanks for playing, but now you should go back to beating up on overhyped east coast teams.
#8 Michigan 14, #2 Alabama 41.
Look, Meeeeechigan is exactly who I thought they would be- a top tier Big 10 team that will contend but not win the conference and get embarassed when they play a top program.
Michigan played this game without their starting runningback. Nick Saban had 6 months to prepare for this game. No analysis is even required on my part.
Warning: We are now entering a hate-fueled rage against the ACC. Any Virginia Tech fans or general ACC sympathizers, your conference still sucks. You have been warned.
NC State 21, Tennessee 35
Please remind me why NC State was my upset pick of the week?
I really like Mike Glennon, I think he's a top notch quarterback. One of the best in the nation. There are some really nice pieces on defense too. But this team needs some time before its actually gonna be worthy of some legitimate quiet, sleeper-style hype.
North Carolina 62, Elon 0
This is purely out of fairness that I'm even mentioning this score here. No one is impressed by this. No offense, D-Will.
William and Mary 6, Maryland 7
How many CAA schools are going to push Maryland to the brink in my college career? William and Mary would not only have beaten the Terps without their fourth-quarter go-ahead touchdown, they would have shut them out IN COLLEGE PARK. And JMU takes them to overtime my Freshman year, also in College Park? Good grief. Don't even show up to the buzzsaw West Virginia is gonna put the Turtles through in three weeks.
I learned a lot more about W&M in this game than I did the Ter(rible Ter)ps. Tribe might be back to compete for a title this year. They probably won't win one, but they look like a legit sleeper.
Murray State 3, #7 Florida State 69
The Sems are the only team to match WVU's week 1 offensive output. Too bad they did it against an FCS team, and one from a pretty terrible FCS conference at that. Not impressed... not yet.
#14 Clemson 26, Auburn 19
I refuse to believe in Florida State and their perennially overrated nature. I picked Clemson to repeat as ACC champions in the preseason, and this was a nice feather for their cap.
Then again, any win at all is a nice bounceback after you lost 70-33 in your last game. Just saying.
Georgia Tech at #16 Virginia Tech
So this game is actually Monday night and hasn't happened yet, but I'm putting Tech on upset alert. Their defense is stout and deserves all the praise it's getting, but triple options are always tricky beasts to handle. Logan Thomas isn't nearly as good as people suddenly seem to think he is. I think Tech is going to take a step back this year because of graduation and reasons out of their control. They just don't have the guys there on offense this year. For those reasons, this would actually be a huge win, if they can pull it out.
Oh, and one other thing- Tech will play in ESPN's yearly week one Monday night game, and follow that up with a week 2 Saturday game at home against an FCS squad. Kind of seems like a short week, right?
Nah, I'm sure they'll be fine. After all, it's not like they're gonna lose to an FCS team at home, right?
Other Scores Worthy of Your Attention
Kentucky 14, #25 Louisville 32
Yes, they're in the Big East. Yes, I hope they move to the Big 12. Yes, the hype is for real.
McNeese St 27, Middle Tennessee 21; Eastern Washington 20, Idaho 3
FCS beats FBS. This is office trivia people. You just won $5. You're welcome.
Washington State 6, BYU 30
Boy am I excited to see Mike Leach turn the Cougar program around. Bang up job so far.
San Jose St 17, #21 Stanford 20
Some people say the Stanford Cardinals are so much more than Andrew Luck. Some people say they're still gonna be a top 25 program.
Some people are wrong.
Notre Dame 50, Navy 10
Relevancy to be determined.
Northern Iowa 21, #12 Wisconsin 26
I was having trouble deciding whether I liked Nebraska or Wisconsin to win the Big 10. I was going to flip a coin. I think that might no longer be necessary.
Youngstown St 31, Pitt 17
Suddenly, Paul Chryst doesn't think Todd Graham is such an ass hole.
Wyoming 17, #15 Texas 37
This game was way closer than the score looks, which begs the question-- why do people have Texas in a freaking BCS bowl? Just saying, if you're defense is so legendary, you probably shouldn't give up 17 to one of the worst offenses in the country.
#4 Oklahoma 24, UTEP 7
Another game that was way closer than it looks. Sooners did not look like the best team in the Big 12. They certainly didn't look like the fourth best team in the country.
That's about it for this week's hangover. One final thing for my fellow Dukes before I go- a quick shoutout to JMUSB. If you don't read these guys regularly, start checking them out. They're quick-witted and gaining a more-than-modest following. Every week you can find previews, commentary, and most importantly, their beer of the week for tailgates.
It's good to have your priorities straight.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)