The SoapBoxers

College football is done and until Spring football season give fans something to go watch again.

So all attention has turned to the NFL Playoffs, where just four teams remain…unless of course you are into Hockey…oh wait…

We hit the Divisional Round this week with some interesting match ups.

Denver vs. Baltimore – Everyone seems to be picking the Broncos in this one. The extra week to rest and prepare, the Sheriff at the helm, we are playing at altitude. Peyton Manning is not exactly known as an “outside the dome” quarterback in his career, and the Ravens are riding on the wave of emotion fueled by the assumed pending retirement of Ray Lewis at the conclusion of the season.

I picked against the Ravens last week, and I will again this week, although I think it will be close. Broncos 28 – Ravens 27

Houston vs New England. – Remember when the Texans looked like the juggernaut of the NFL, and then the last few weeks happened, moving from an insurmountable #1 seed with guaranteed home field advantage to now being on the road in ever tough New England.

You look at the Patriots and you just keep wondering how the heck they do it. Billy B has two weeks to get ready for this one, which means dire consequences for the Texans. New England – 31- Houston – 20

Seattle vs. Atlanta. The Seahawks are arguably the hottest team in the entire league. While they have been considered an iffy road team at best, they went into RFK last week and pulled off a win against the Redskins, mainly thanks to a gimpy-now blown out- knee by Robert Griffin III.

This will make two long plane rides in two weeks for Seattle, and Atlanta is way overdue to win a playoff game under Matt Ryan. Plus the dome will be rockin’ after having the extra bye week. In a battle of the birds, I will take Atlanta mainly because of my huge dislike for Seattle Head Coach Cheater Pete Carroll. Falcons – 24- Seahawks – 20

Green Bay vs. San Francisco – I think this is the best overall match-up this week with two teams that have been at the top of the NFC for the last couple of years. This one is purely strength against strength with the volatile Packer offense against the stout 49er defense.

Both teams feature mobile quarterbacks and this IS a quarterback league. That is the difference in this one. Kaepernick is more mobile, is good throwing on the run, but this is his first time at a rodeo featuring this big of a stage. Rodgers, on the other hand, has been there, done that. The Packers offense is the most potent in the league if it is clicking on all cylinders, but Kaepernick will give them problems. Go Pack Go – 35 – Niners – 27

Until Next Time – Stay Classy Wheat Ridge, Colorado!

January is Football Euphoria

The Bowl Season is nearly complete. The office confidence pools are wrapping up, and more of us are looking forward to the BCS Title Game between Alabama and Notre Dame. The NFL playoffs start this weekend and there are a bunch of intriguing match-ups as well.

Hopefully Santa dropped off that new large flat screen LED TV for you to take in all the action from the warm and friendly confines of your home.

Wildcard Weekend!

The NFL games start off with a rematch of last week’s battle of Minnesota and Green Bay. This match up puts arguably the best two players at their position, Aaron Rodgers and Adrian Peterson, against one another yet again. How many weeks can Peterson carry the Vikings? I would have thought they would have slipped out of the race a long time ago, but the fact they are here at all speaks volumes to their coaching staff and well…Adrian Peterson. Weather forecast for the Frozen Tundra…not exactly frozen, but upper 20’s with a chance of snow.. Will that hurt the Pack’s passing attack?

Pack get revenge as it is too tough to beat a team in back to back weeks. Packer  27, Vikings 17

Houston and Cincinnati. It seems like just a few weeks ago (and actually was) that Houston was in the driver’s seat for home field advantage for the entire playoffs. Now they have to play a first round game against red hot Cincinnati. The Texans are better but you never know…Who Dey? Dey are going home early. Texans 21 – Bengals 20

Indianapolis Colts play the Baltimore Ravens – this one to me is a toss-up, the Colts have played well, and Baltimore is the model of inconsistency. This is the Last Hurrah for Ray Lewis. Will Flacco find some magic? Ravens in a close one. Baltimore 23 – Indianapolis 21.

The final game on the slate is maybe the most exciting. Two rookie quarterbacks face off as the Seahawks face the Redskins. To me, this game is three factors, 1) it is at Washington, 2) Shanahan is a way better coach than old cheatie Petey C. and 3) RG III ! Gimmie the Skins 28- Seahawks 17

Back to School

I said earlier this year in more than one article that Alabama was clearly the superior college football team. I mean they have the deity of all college coaches, Nick Saban, at the helm. Alabama is so great in the eyes of all of the television announcers, ESPN, ABC, FOX, CBS, and all of the sportswriters in North American that 2 of the last 3 quarterbacks to pull off the Herculean task of beating Alabama have won the Heisman Trophy (our condolences to the LSU Quarterback tandem, but the voters couldn’t find reason to vote you for Heisman in 2011 as you only scored 9 points in a win).

Alabama has superior defense, the Tide has the more experience quarterback, and is clearly the superior team.

Notre Dame on the other hand was the recipient of a quick whistle against Stanford on a 4th and goal play, and used the voodoo doll to ensure that Pittsburgh’s kicker Kevin Harper kept shanking short field goal attempts.

Yep no way Alabama loses this game.

Go Irish!!!!

Until next time, stay classy Myrtle Beach, South Carolina

 

[adrotate banner=”32″]

Staying Patient

It has been awhile since I wrote about our building our first new home. Most of you likely expect that it is completed.

Truth is, our contractor is quite a bit delayed, and we were originally supposed to move into our new home around Thanksgiving. Now our new completion date is likely closer to March of 2013.

They Call Them Apartments, But They Are All Together.

You might recall my last article when I wrote about the neighbor below, with a tolerance for noise that borders on that of a 97 year old librarian. Actually no incidents since then for my family, but he did go off one night on the neighbors next door to him – his wall banging reminiscent of a Sasquatch trying to tear down a campsite.

The biggest complaint of living in the small space with the entire family is that it is hard enough being cooped up inside during the winter months, but even harder when you are six years old…just ask my son.

The advantage is that living in the apartment has allowed for my wife and I to pay for a new bedroom set and a sound system for the house – – – just based on the money we have saved in making a house payment vs. the lower rent payment. So while we have still spent money, we have instead spent it on some items we really wanted for the new abode.

Earning For Our New Keep

Speaking of money, the best thing we did is have a performance clause built into our contract. What this means is that if the house is not completed by a certain date, then we, the purchaser of the new home, get the final price reduced by a stipulated sum of money for each week, or month, the house is delayed.

I am sure there are a bunch of possible ways that a couple building a home could set this up with their contractor, and each situation is different. I would strongly recommend doing this if you are looking to build a home. This offers some guarantee that your construction will be done during the allotted time, and if not…at least you are being financially compensated for having to wait. Our builder had this built into our contract, and since things are delayed, it is now a benefit in terms of final value we will pay when we close on our new home.

What Are Hardest Decisions to Make?

I have had a few people ask me this one. I have heard horror stories from many people, and have had other people tell me there is no way they would ever build a house as they aren’t sure they could make all of the decisions.

I have never looked at this as a chore…instead I would tell you that it has actually been very fun and exciting choosing things for the new house.

But, what item has been the hardest thing to pick out?

We have brick on the exterior of our home, and let’s face it…you are never going to replace brick. So to me choosing a brick we liked was the hardest choice. I had NO idea there were THAT many types and colors of brick to choose from.

Next toughest for me is choosing the exterior color of the home. Actually this is not even decided yet, but we need to figure it out soon. The problem is I like about 25 different combinations, so it is more a problem on just deciding and sticking to one I like. Everything else has been pretty smooth – carpet, tile, countertops, lighting fixtures etc. It likely helps that my wife and I are on the same page on most every item, and I am sure it is a lot different for some couples. But for us, it has been pretty easy.

The only other thing other than exterior colors to still choose is ceiling fans, and interior colors. Well and the landscaping plan. Fortunately I have a relative that has a background in that field of expertise. He took some pictures and some site drawings from us at the holidays and will get back to us with some ideas on how to dress up the yard once the house is complete.

Just like everything else with the house, I can’t wait to see how that turns out!

Have a great 2013!

Until Next Time, stay classy Orlando, Florida.

 

Quarterback U???

In my childhood days, the University of Miami (the one in Florida, not the one in Ohio) was known as producing a number of great Quarterbacks who had outstanding careers in college and then went on to have fantastic professional careers as well.

Not every one of them turned out to be good in the NFL, but the hits were much better than the misses.

There are some great ones on the list to be sure. Bernie Kosar, Vinnie Testeverde, Jim Kelly. These guys all had fantastic and LONG NFL careers. Of course for each of these guys there is also a Brock Berlin, Frank Costa and Gino Torretta.

How the Heck did Torretta win the Heisman anyway?

Smoke and Mirrors

Gino won the Heisman the way many college quarterbacks win the Heisman. They end up playing on the best team in college, often times a team playing for a national championship, they have a dominating defense, and a superior offensive line that is loaded with future NFL players.

So…an “average” quarterback ends up putting up stellar numbers in college because 1) He is on a good team 2) his offensive line is like a Berlin Wall and he never gets touched and 3) ESPN hypes him to the hilt ultimately leading to the Heisman trophy discussions and vaulting him up the draft projection charts come draft day.

Fast Forward to 2000…

Miami won their last National Title in 2001 – although they were good for a few years after that. At that point there was a resurgence of the University of Southern California football team.

Of course we know now that much of what led to their success (and ultimately Pete Carroll leaving town) was “questionable” benefits made to players such as Reggie Bush – who then had to “vacate” his Heisman Trophy.

Carson Palmer was the signal caller in 2000. Palmer lead to a definite improvement for the Trojans. Pete Carroll had just been hired – and the Trojans went 6-6 in his first year. But that is the last time that he would lose that many games for the Trojans.

Palmer was followed by Matt Leinart (Heisman winner) then by John David Booty, next by Mark Sanchez…and finally that brings us to current day Matt Barkley.

The Trojans during this time were loaded with NFL talent (some brought or should I say “bought” to campus) and were great teams. Awesome NFL players abounded on both defense and offense.

So as mentioned earlier, criteria #1 and criteria #2 have been met.

Over-rated….

In 2009, USC was named “Team of the Decade” by both CBSSports.com and Football.com, as well as the Program of the Decade by SI.com, and was ranked No. 2 in ESPN.com’s Prestige Rankings among all schools since 1936 (behind Oklahoma). Additionally, in 2009, ESPN.com ranked USC the second-best program in college football history.

Really….WOW – looking back now that seems like that might have been some caught up in the moment rankings by the so called “experts”.

If you have watched ESPN in the last 10 years it is safe to say the only thing the college day game crew loves more than USC is Nick Saban and Alabama…)or maybe Dukie Vitale and his love of the Duke Blue Devils)

The hype has overtaken the reality.

Barkley was annoited the Heisman front runner before the year even began. I even wrote about it some months ago. Truth is..he really is not very good.

The list of Quarterbacks from USC in the last 12 years all had very impressive NFL careers. Only Palmer could be argued as being remotely decent in the NFL. The rest…..in order – Horrible, vanished, mentioned as the 2nd coming by the New York media and now maybe the most hated man in town….and that brings us to Barkley – …future NFL bust.

We will see what comes draft day in 2013. This class is loaded with lineman, and short on skill position players and big name – over-hyped quarterback prospects.

Some owner will roll the dice on Barkley and get burned to tell about it later.

I just hope for my friends in the desert..that the Cardinals do not make the same mistake in short order and chase down another USC quarterback

Until next time…stay classy Monroe, Louisiana

How in the hell does Western Kentucky have the chance to hire Bobby Petrino? More importantly why is this guy allowed to coach anywhere?

Right after getting inked to a 10 year contract with Louisville, Petrino left for the friendly confines of the National Football League to head up the Atlanta Falcons.

Things went badly with the Falcons. Michael Vick was in prison, the team was trying to break in a new quarterback and a bunch of young players – the team found themselves at 3-10 and losing 34-14 to the New Orleans Saints. How did Bobby respond? He left notes in the locker room explaining to his players that he was leaving to go back to college football. That is right, he left players notes…did not even have the decency to talk to them…man to man.

Less than 24 hours after leaving the goodbye notes in the lockers….off to Arkansas went good ol’ Bobby P. There he was singed to another large contract. He was going to take Hog Soooooeyy to the next level of the SEC. They had achieved success under Houston Nutt – they even had talented running backs like Darrin McFadden – but the boosters ran Nutt outta town.

Petrino did not last real long at Arkansas either. If you remember it was discovered that he was sleeping with a tall blonde who coincidentally was riding on the back of his Harley when he wrecked in in April of 2012…which in and of itself seems like no big deal. Except Petrino’s was married, the tall blonde was not his wife but instead was a person that he personally selected for a job in the except that he had also awarded her a job in the Arkansas football department over 158 other applicants — and then kicked in an extra $20,000 as a gift to her.

Now Petrino is getting yet another chance. Western Kentucky is hiring him to take over their football program as head coach.

Pretty obviously to me that they are beyond desperation to hire someone who has such an interesting past as this guy. He has shown the propensity to be non-loyal, abuse his position of authority and step out on his family.

Not it appears he is just following the money.

And Western Kentucky apparently has closed their eyes and ears to all of these past problems and just cares about one thing….

Trying to get a winning football team.

A couple of years ago the Hilltoppers made the jump to Division 1. They had a successful 1-AA program. They made the move to the higher class, spent almost $50 million in improvements to their stadium and facilities, and then tanked…..losing 26 straight games over the course of three seasons.

They rebuilt the program, even made a trip to Lincoln to play my beloved Huskers, and with former quarterback Willie Taggart at the helm, the Hilltoppers went 7-5 the last two years.

Taggert headed to Florida to greener pastures and more money, which left the Hilltoppers looking for a new man to run out behind the Orange Blob mascot (what the heck is that thing anyway?)

It is too bad that schools overlook morals, cheating, recruiting violations and other character faults when hiring coaches. I am sure Petrino is just going to use this as a stepping stone after his long fall from grace just a year ago…the question will be…will there be an even bigger school waiting to give him yet ANOTHER chance?

Until next time….Stay classy Carlsbad, New York

It should be an interesting Heisman match up as only three people are invited to the festivities this year. In many ways it is the unlikeliest three you could have ever tried to pick out before the season started.

Optimus Klein

Collin Klein had been a good – maybe even great quarterback for the Kansas State Wildcats. He had matured nicely over a couple of years and the club was seeing some success after the lean Ron Prince Era in Manhattan. No one saw the Wildcats going undefeated – until a late season loss at Baylor- which dropped them from the eventual #1 BCS ranking. K-State is headed to the Fiesta Bowl to represent the Big XII conference against the vaunted Quack Attack from the Pac Northwest. Klein is not flashy, doesn’t look real fast, but he is smart and he makes plays, and has been as consistent as any guy talked about in the Heisman voting all year with 22 touchdown runs and another 15 through the air.

As much as it pains a Nebraska guy to say this…I would be happy for Kansas State if Colin took home the Heisman.

Baby Seau

Manti Te’o is the unquestioned leader of the Notre Dame Fighting Irish. He has led the team to an undefeated record and a trip to the BCS title game in Miami against the Crimson Tide. The Golden Domers were thought to be better this year, but much like in the case of Kansas State…I don’t think anyone saw an undefeated season coming. A few lucky breaks ( a quick referees whistle against Stanford, and a couple of “noonans” out of the Pittsburgh kicker) kept the undefeated season alive. Teo leads his team with 103 tackles and is 2nd Nationally with 7 picks on the year. Oh yeah…he won the Butkus on Monday.

I can’t vote for Manti because – A….he is from Notre Dame and B…what a horrible nickname…..

Go Johnny GO!

The media darling and apparent leader in the clubhouse is Johnny Manziel of Texas A&M. Manziel is the favorite to win the award and would be the first freshman EVER to win if the voters agree. He would also be the only other Aggie to win the award since John David Crow clear back in 1957. Johnny Football does not have history on his side. Other greats have come close in their freshman years but to no avail. Adrian Peterson finished 2nd as a freshman, Michael Vick and Herschel Walker both finished third their initial year in college. That is a pretty strong list of company. Manziel racked up an SEC record 4600 yards of total offense (yep, that beats Tim Tebow and Cam Newton folks) and ran for an impressive 1181 yards – also to lead the conference

I don’t know if the voters will have the guts to take a defensive player (this just does not happen) or a Freshman (this just does not happen either) or will vote for the safe play in Klein.

Vote for Johnny!

Melt Down in Indianapolis.

The Big 10 Woodshed Beating known as the title game saw the Wisconsin Badgers run up the score – both literally and figuratively- on their way to 70 points and almost 600 yards of rushing. This has Nebraska fans searching for answers and screaming about yet another large embarrassing national televised beat down while Wisconsin fans are making travel arrangements to Pasadena.

Of course my allegiances lie with the Big Red. So take my comments here with a grain of salt. Many Husker faithful will are calling for coaching changes. Nebraska won 10 games so far this year, and have a brutally tough match up in the Capital One Bowl with Florida. (another likely loss as UGA is a huge early favorite) Truth is the overall talent on the defensive side of the ball in particular and much of what was done this year was probably as much smoke, mirrors and duct tape – mixed in with a little luck….but I think coaching was the reason the team actually won 10 games this year and have a chance to make it to the Big 10 Title game.

After getting housed by Ohio State in Columbus, Husker Coach Bo Pelini challenged his team to win 6 in a row. Well the Cornhuskers did just that…winning 6 to make the title game.

Maybe Bo should have told them they needed to win 7. The team looked lackluster and slow…they looked like a tired team that had been through a rough stretch of schedule.

Wisconsin on the other hand looked my buddy Scott running the controls on NCAA Football 2012 for PlayStation III on “easy” mode.

One Highlight during a lowlight evening.

Always a fan of big hits, this one is arguably one of the worst calls I have seen. Nebraska receiver Kenny Bell was flagged for unnecessary roughness after plastering Wisconsin’s Devin Smith. This is the largest smack down since John Ruud de-cleated Kelly Phelps from Oklahoma on a kick return in a colossal match up of the Huskers and OU in 1978 in Lincoln.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hA5fJkSRFyk" 
Before any Wisconsin fans whine that it was the correct call, let me remind you…SCOREBOARD…just keep quiet and let Husker fans rejoice on one of the few glimmers of brilliance on this fateful night.

On a more concerning note, this legal hit is exactly what football (NFL more explicitly) is trying to dictate. They are trying to regulate safety in the game. Anytime you have big, strong, fast grown men running around with helmets and body armor on…occasionally violent collisions will happen.

This time a big hit was on a big stage at the college level (albeit in a complete blowout game) Will the NCAA respond and put some rules in place just due to a hit like this in a conference title game.

Greedy Big 10

The news leaked out last week, The Big 10 with 12 teams is going to now have 14 teams.

Am I the only person that thinks someone needs some remedial math…..

Maryland and Rutgers were invited to join the conference. And by invited I mean, umm….tapping into the Northeastern Television Market required the Big 10 to add some teams that were geographically located there.

The Greedy ACC

I am guessing the ACC put this into play since they landed their “Big Fish” in Notre Dame, and wanted to make sure that if the Golden Dome ever left the confines of the ACC they would be leaving some of their pots of gold behind.

Earlier this year Maryland – along with Florida State – voted against raising the exit fee from $20 million to $50 million in September after Notre Dame was added as a member in all sports but football. This is a significant exit penalty and much much more than Nebraska, Colorado, Texas A&M or Missouri had to pay in comparison for leaving the befuddled Big XII a few years ago.

University of Maryland President Wallace Loh went on record earlier this year saying he did not think the $50 million Atlantic Coast Conference exit fee would hold up in court, but now the ACC has filed a lawsuit against the University of Maryland to protect their interest in a buy-out clause that was reconfigured just last year.

“We continue to extend our best wishes to the University of Maryland; however, there is the expectation that Maryland will fulfill its exit fee obligation,” Commissioner John Swofford said in a statement. “On Friday, the ACC Council of Presidents made the unanimous decision to file legal action to ensure the enforcement of this obligation.”

Rutgers, by comparison, had to pay only a $10 million exit fee to leave the Big East. This seems like lunch money at this stage.

It will be interesting to see if Maryland is able to barter down the price tag, but I am guessing that this would have been happening behind the scenes, and well in front of any lawsuit being filed.

Looks like the Commonwealth and the League need to take this one outside and duke it out.

Late Season Craziness

Hold off on your early Christmas parties…. This could shape up to be a crazy bowl season, and a lot hinges on what transpires this week.

UCLA and Stanford play each other for the second straight week to decide who represents the Pac 12 in the Rose Bowl. Nothing like a rematch on back to back weeks.

Nebraska has a rematch with Wisconsin to be the representative of the Big 10 in the Rose Bowl. Nebraska won the first meeting. If Wisconsin wins, they will be 8-5 and representing in Pasadena.

As a side note, Nebraska lost to UCLA earlier this year in September in California.

I think the Rose Bowl Committee is pulling hard for the Huskers and Stanford, as that match up will be much more attractive Nationally and will also benefit the ticket sales much more than any of the other possible combinations of those four teams.

Alabama and Georgia play one another to basically settle who gets to go to the beach and play Notre Dame.

The Big East has three teams still alive depending on who beats who this weekend.

And a freshman Quarterback might actually win the Heisman Trophy.

Good luck to you and your sports teams and remember…Johnny for Heisman!

Until next time, stay classy Tyler, Texas

Fold Tide!

The unthinkable happened. The Wizard of Tuscaloosa – Nick Saban lost a football game. Texas A&M, led by Redshirt Freshman Quarterback Johnny Manziel pulled off the unsuspecting upset on the road. He has been dubbed “Johnny Football” (which I take exception to…I mean I don’t call myself Johnny Golfer) and has vaulted into the Heisman race.

This just goes to show you how much pull the Tide has nationally as when they lose it is big news. Of course Nick Saban is college football’s version of George Steinbrenner. You either love the guy, or you think he is the biggest jerk in the world. Alabama slides to #5 in the BCS rankings, and now we have three major un-beatens all looking for one another to lose….but more on that later.

The bigger news is the newcomer goes into what is perceived as the Berlin Wall of college football, being Alabama at home, and wins. We should have seen this coming a week ago as LSU should have pulled off the upset but let them off the hook at the very end of the game.

Maybe the SEC is what I have always claimed it is, a darn good conference but not as good as everyone at CBS makes it out to be…..who could possibly think a former Big XII team could win AT Bama.

Welcome to the SEC Texas A&M.

The Three Horse Race

It is down to Kansas State, Oregon and Notre Dame in the race to the BCS Championship. History tells us that one of the three if not two or even all three will lose an important game late down the stretch in the last couple of weeks and shake this thing up even more.

Each of these teams has a good argument why they should be playing for all the marbles and the cheesy crystal trophy. All of the teams can easily also make an argument for each of the other teams why they should NOT be playing in a title game.

One thing is for sure, it will certainly be an interesting match up if any two of these three teams are left standing at the end of the year. Each has one tough test remaining, and as the stakes get higher, the nerves sometimes get tighter. The only team that has been here recently is Oregon as they have been the best of the three in the recent history. Notre Dame has not been this good, well, since Cheater Lou was coaching, and the Methuselah of the Little Apple got to the BCS stage once but that was one retirement ago.

I hope they all win out and then we just have more fodder for the sports hacks and radio personalities. Chaos and discussion is what makes the bowl system fun. Soon that will all be gone.

Welcome to the Playoff System soon.

Sideline Controversy – Yet Again

Had to get a Husker blurb in this week as they continue to not only get very lucky with seemingly many critical calls and bounces going there way, but they pull another come from behind by more than two score victory again this week.

The bigger news is more with Coach Pelini than the team winning.

This past Saturday against Penn State, Pelini and Senior Safety Daimion Stafford got into a “heated exchange” folloiwng a Penn State Touchdown, no shocker as Pelini always has the camera on him to catch any possible temper flare up – which based on past history is no surprise.

Stafford pointed and yelled various unrepeatable expletives to the head coach, and Pelini is facing away from the camera the entire time.

While the coach might have had his back turned to the camera, he had his player’s back in comments following the game.

“The only thing you can criticize Daimion Stafford for was wanting to win so bad. He was very upset, and he should be upset, we gave up a touchdown” I love the guy. He is an emotional leader. Let me tell you, it’s an emotional game, That stuff happens, that is not the first time it has ever happened. That happens on the practice field so it is no big deal to me.”

Pelini has a temper that is well documented and that is what makes him who he is on the sideline, but I for one believe he is still paying the price for his reputation.

Here is one Husker fan hoping that if the players want to vent at the coach and then go play like their hair is on fire, that is just fine with this fan.

Until next time…Stay Classy Cedar Falls , Iowa

My My….crow is tasty and best served when cold….

In lasts week’s article I went on the record about Notre Dame with the following statement:

I am going on record that Boomer Sooner will roll one up on this over-rated team. Of course I could be completely wrong as frankly Oklahoma can be pretty average as well (see loss to Kansas State). Coach Stoops has a way of losing the big one, but I predict this will look more like the game against Texas than the turnover plagued loss to the Wildcats.

I even went as far to proclaim in the office that you can’t spell “BLOWOUT” without “OU”

After a Sunday to prepare for the onslaught of grief in the office on Monday, I supplied some cookies from a local establishment – Eileen’s.  While I am not a paid endorser, I am giving Eileen’s some free publicity today as their cookies are the GREATS!. Of course everyone in the office already likes them and how can you not like chocolate cookies with green mint frosting to celebrate a Fighting Irish victory over Oklahoma.

Of course my cookie offerings could not stop the onslaught of emails of Manti Te’o’ and various signs popping up on my cubicle throughout the day when I would be away at lunch or at the printer.

Gotta love those Irish fans.

The Big 10?

Another crazy week in the conference. Denard Robinson gets injured and Nebraska wins rather easily against Michigan. Neither team looked very good on the field, matter of fact you could argue the play of both offenses rivaled the condition on Sunday morning of most of the people that were at our football tailgate party all day on Saturday at Memorial Stadium…..sluggish….

The Huskers have the lead in their division but head into what is sure to be a dog-fight this weekend in East Lansing. This side of the equation for the Conference Title game in Indianapolis is still wide open in what has been a very average year in comparison to the national stage.

On the other side of the league, Wisconsin loses to Michigan State last week at home (the first home loss in 21 games for Bielema’s boys was the 2nd longest streak in the nation) but since both Penn State and Ohio State are ineligible for the Title game, they are still clearly in command to make that game. Unfortunately they have lost their starting QB Joel Stave to a broken collarbone so they will have to go to the back-up plan and basically just hold off pesky Indiana to play for (gulp) the automatic BCS berth. But as Kosmo alluded to in his article yesterday, the Big 10 is still full of scenarios that could have them sending no one to BCS Bowl this year.

The many possibilities as they say are very …well….possible. I am guessing conference athletic directors might be secretly rooting for Nebraska to run the table just so everyone can get a slice of the BCS payday pie.

Optimus Klein

Collin Klein has pretty much distanced himself from the rest of the pack and barring a major crash and burn by his team or injury he looks to be the guy to hoist the trophy at the Downtown Athletic Club. On the year he has 1630 passing yards 634 yards rushing and a combined 28 Td’s. The Mildcats have Oklahoma State, TCU, Baylor and Texas on the schedule…What that spells to me is more huge stats by the lead Cat.

Fighting Frankies!

Once a Husker always a Husker, and I was disappointed to see that former Husker Coach Frank Solich and the Ohio Bobcats lost their first game of the year this past week to Miami of Ohio. The MAC is tough and this drops them from the rankings and even outside mention at a possible BCS bid if they ran the table, to now being in third place in their own conference.

Know a Good Real Estate Agent?

I have a hard time believing that Auburn will keep Gene Chizik after the abysmal year of the Tigers. They got wood-shedded again this past week losing by 42 points. The good news for Auburn is they have New Mexico State this week and still have to play powerhouse Alabama A&M in another examples of two cases of an SEC school playing weird home games late in the year against poor opponents or downright patsies.

The bad news is that they also have to face Georgia (who I still think really isn’t that good) and Alabama (which I think IS really that good)

I am sure for War Eagle fans it seems so very long ago that they had paid Cam Newton and won their BCS Title. Wonder where Gene will end up?

Until next time, stay classy Tarpon Springs, Florida

Where did Geno’s Heisman Go?

A few weeks ago, I like many of the other sports aficionado’s had declared the Heisman Trophy all but won by West Virginia’s Geno Smith.

Boy was I wrong…..

It never ceases to amaze me how in the world of college football, things can change so quickly.

Who saw these things happening?

At the start of the season, Michigan State looked like the favorite to win the Big 10 Conference after knocking off the Boise State Broncos in the opener, and Le’Veon Bell carry the ball 225 times for like 565 yards. Update – Sparty then loses 4 of the next 7 games and is basically out of it and waiting for Izzo to take the floor to get renewed hope.

Kansas State looked like a “nice” team in the B ig 12 Conference. Bill Snyder, aka Methuselah had resurrected the Cats of the bowels of despair (also known as the Ron Prince experiment) and was set for a decent year. Update – A decent year is being undefeated, having the current Heisman front runner – Colin Klein – leading your team, and being undefeated and currently #3 in the BCS rankings.

The Auburn Tigers – Just a short time ago Cam Newton was taking his expensive brand of college football quarterbacking and leading the club to a National Title. Now, Auburn shows up as #100 in the USA Today ranking of teams from 1-124 in Division 1. Auburn went 8-5 last year and coach Gene Chizik was expecting a better year in 2012 with 16 returning starters. Update – Auburn fans are figuring out what Iowa State already knew…..it is fine if this guy leaves. Chizik left town for greener pastures when he left Iowa State overall Clones fans would say they are better off with Paul Rhoads.  Auburn meanwhile is 1-6 this year and 0-5 in conference play.

I had to give a shout out to Auburn fans here – as they seem to like my article on recruiting which has been getting some play on message boards in War Eagle country.

Notre Dame is undefeated.  Man did I miss this one, of course Coach Kelly hangs his hat on a slew of wins over ranked teams. Let me re-cap – Michigan State – Top 10 at the time but now has a losing record. The hot and cold Michigan team that had 28 turnovers in the red zone to lose to the Golden Domers. The ol leprechaun’s got the Luck of the Irish – AGAIN – against Stanford – whose running back Stepfan Taylor still hasn’t hit the ground. This week they looked un-inspired in a narrow win over BYU. Update –I am going on record that Boomer Sooner will roll one up on this over-rated team. Of course I could be completely wrong as frankly Oklahoma can be pretty average as well (see loss to Kansas State). Coach Stoops has a way of losing the big one, but I predict this will look more like the game against Texas than the turnover plagued loss to the Wildcats.

It was the Dukes it was the Dukes….

Hold onto your hats….the Blue Devils are BOWL ELIGIBLE. That is right. We are talking about Duke. They have David Cutcliffe at the helm and he has led Duke to a place they have not been both literally and figuratively in forever. Duke went uninspiring 19-117 in the dozen years before the arrival of their head honcho. This will make their first chance to head to a bowl game since 1994 and only the third time since 1961. The last time they were in this position they were coached by the Old Ball coach himself, Steve Spurrier.

A lot of tough games for them the rest of the way, as they have to still play the Seminoles, but this is the first time in a long time the Cameron Crazies maybe are not ready to sleep in tents to see Coach K’s boys just yet.

The more things change, the more they stay the same….

I have to offer a written “Shout Out” to an old friend who I tailgated and attended the Northwestern vs. Nebraska game with this past weekend in Evanston. I have had the pleasure of seeing two of the more exciting college games in person while travelling with my buddy Terry. (We also went to the Missouri vs. Nebraska infamous “kickeroooskie” game in 1997 together) As always we had a great time and we picked up right where we last left off, the last time we went to a game together some 4 years ago. One thing is true about Nebraska Fans, they travel like no others. The stadium at Ryan Field (PS Northwestern Athletic Department – you have plenty of money at your University…how about some facility upgrades. Port-a-potties at the stadium….really???) was at least 50% Nebraska fans.

There really is no place like Nebraska…or any fans like their fans. Now go bring home a win against Michigan.

If they do, I just might cease to be amazed.

Until Next Time – Stay Classy Union Grove, Wisconsin