Consider yourselves warned...

Even Stephen Colbert has called you out...


Better get your picks in, and eat your breakfast of champions...

You think I'm kidding???

The only thing sadder than living on the West Coast with a bunch of bandwagon jumping, cabernet and sushi tailgating, Disney cartoons on ABC watching, quick ticket scalping "college football fans" is when they try to act as if they are truly enamored with the sport.

When that happens, it looks like this:

I know there are ridiculous things happening in Columbus, Austin, South Bend, and Lincoln, but this is just a pathetic cry for help...

There's no place on earth like Nebraska...

Especially if you're a moth: They're working out the bugs at Nebraska

What in the holy heck did the Husker faithful think would happen when they illuminated that thing in the middle of all of those cornfields??

It makes me wonder what will happen in Austin: Texas sized viewing

Too much time on their hands

This has been crusing the net (and my inbox) for a couple of days. Enjoy the blessings of white guys rapping about Columbus Ohio.

Actually, I don't see this as an OSU related clip- there's just nothing else to brag about in Franklin ("Cowntee...")

The Rules...

Wise words from ESPN: New Rules for College Football Fans

If You're Here...

You are hopefully going to be a part of our College Football Pick-em challenge.

Here we go again!! The most wonderful time of the year, especially if you don’t live in Los Angeles (although we do have the beach and the great weather to help console ourselves…)

This year we’ve invited another SEC fan, Jake Gross (and Emily?) from Auburn; as well as an Aggie alumni, Todd Ormsby! This means that realistically we’ve got all the big conferences (Big 10, Big 12, SEC, Pac 10) covered except the ACC- and who cares about Miami or Florida State anyway?Here's the 411:

This game challenges you to select the winner of 10 selected games for 12 weeks during the NCAA football season using a "confidence" scoring system. You receive the amount of confidence points you assigned to each game you correctly selected the winning team to win. Best of all, it's FREE to play.

Get in the action now:
http://games.espn.go.com/cpickem/group?groupID=1308&password=Bomar

Game Front: http://games.espn.go.com/cpickem/frontpage
Group: Lost in LA LA Land
Password: Bomar

Strict ESPN Rules- we’ll have a ‘points’ and ‘picks’ ranking system again, but if you miss the deadline, you miss the deadline. Grace as you know it has come to an end. So pay attention- there are a lot of games being moved to Thursdays and Fridays and Sundays….

Yup, OSU is ranked #1 preseason… Me, I like West Virginia (no competition) and anyone but Michigan or Notre Dame. Will this be the year that Nebraska gets back on track? That Miami has it’s entire team jailed? That USC finally gets caught in shenanigans? That Adrian Peterson finally buys the car that he was test driving?

Or, more importantly, is this the year that Doug and Paula and Scott go through an entire season w/o missing a week? Anything could happen… Sign up now! Oh, and if you have a favorite CF site that you’d like added to the sidebar, let me know and I’ll update it!

Football + Jesus = Awesome

Originally posted 07.03.06

See- sports and faith are not automatically incompatible: A Man of Faith

Mia Cupla, Husker Nation

Originally posted 06.12.06

To make up for my last Nebraska post, let me point to this:

Eric Crouch remains Toronto Argonauts #3 QB.

Hooray for playing with Ricky Williams!!

Random Husker News

Originally posted 06.08.06

If you're peeking in from Salem, Lincoln, or our apartment, you might not want to read this article from the Kansas City Star:

Changes Diminish Stature of Big Red

It discusses some of the reasons that Nebraska has become a second tier power in the Big 12; mostly due to the limitations that the new conference put on its members in terms of scholar athletes. But really, how seriously can we take 'journalism' from Kansas.

Yup, just for linking to this, I'm sleeping on the couch. At Dan's apartment. If Lynnea lets me.

Is It August yet??

Originally posted 05.20.06

I know that people are picking the beloved tOSU Buckeyes as a pre-season #1. I agree with Coach Tressel that this is unrealistic, given that our entire defense is in the NFL.

However, this video does tend to get the blood flowing...

Not A Good Look

Originally posted 04.06.06

OK, I'm not a fashionista, but I saw that the Ohio State University is changing their jerseys for fall 2006. Here's the new look:
Which is cool, and all, but is missing the "grey" of the Scarlet and Grey. Here's the classic:

The new design makes my wife happy, though, since it looks more like the Huskers' attire:
but, like I said, I'm not sure that's the look we should be going for.

Thoughts?

Just Some Good Ol' Boys

Originally posted 02.12.06

Let's talk a bit today about college football's biggest shame. Nope, not out of control boosters, or the exploitation of college aged adults for huge dollars. Those are tragedies as well, but for all major college sports, not just football. Let's talk a bit about minority hiring rates.

There are (or will be, come next August), 5 African American head football coaches at Division One programs. 5 out of 119. For more numbers and thoughts on this from ESPN.com, see this story about the recent hire at Colorado.

My wife (the math major) says that's 4.2%. In comparison, 49.2 % of student athletes in these football programs are African Americans. In the NFL, there are 6 out of 32 (18.7%) African American head coaches (with Art Shell's re-hire by the Raiders).

College basketball (men's and women's) and the NBA have much MUCH better numbers. Of course, in places like the Universities of Kentucky and Indiana, that's not always a good thing.

Why can't football keep up? Some theorize that it's because football is still a maority sport and basketball is seen as a minority sport.

Why don't we talk about this as much as we do the BCS or the RPI? Is it important?

Just wondering...

One-Peat

Originally posted 01.11.06

Best.
Idea.
Ever.

Sounds like something I said earlier...

For the record, USC has 1.5 championships and not 2, and I can't believe that the BCS committed ABC/ESPN networks kept propogating this lie- LSU won the BCS championship two years ago, while USC won the AP poll (the "we hate the BCS and will always vote for another team if possible because we're sportswriters who like to be important once a year" award).

Apples and Oranges

Originally posted 01.05.06

For all of my Southern California friends who have already forgotten about football (see last post), let me point out a couple of "things" about the great USC team and my favorite squadron, by looking at common opponents.

This post is dedicated to my friend Trevor Schultz, who used to send me an email this time every year letting me know how the worst team in the nation had a claim to the title... "A beat B, who beat C, who beat D...."

Onto the rambling:

USC Offense vs. tOSU Offense. Common Opponent- Notre Dame (a road game for USC/OSU)

OSU offensive stats vs. ND:
Passing- 342 yards, 2 TDs, 0 INT
Rushing- 275 yards, 2 TDs
Total Offense- 617 yards, 34 points (and it should have been more)

USC offensive stats vs. ND:
Passing- 301 yards, 0 TDs, 2 INT (fo
Rushing- 175 yards, 4 TDs (including the "Bush Push" to save the game)
Total Offense- 476 yards, 34 points

USC Defense vs. tOSU Defense. Common Opponent- Texas (a home game for USC/OSU- yup, I count the Rose Bowl as a USC home game)

Texas offensive stats vs. OSU:
Vince Young Passing- 18/29 for 270 yards, 2 TDs, 2 INT
Vince Young Rushing- 20 carries, 76 yards, 0 TDs
Texas Total Offense- 382 yards, 25 points

Texas offensive stats vs. USC:
Vince Young Passing- 30/40 for 267 yards, 0 TDs
Vince Young Rushing- 19 carries, 200 yards, 3 TDs
Texas Total Offense- 556 yards, 41 points

And Pete Carroll is a "Defensive Guru". Like Charlie Weis is an offensive guru, I guess.

I'm not sayin', I'm just sayin'...

OK, I'll say it...

Originally posted 01.05.06

This was the best set of BCS games ever. Bar none. Not that we still couldn't use a playoff (in spite of what the new coordinator says), but these four games were amazing!

Here are some thoughts about each, without corporate sponsorship:

Fiesta Bowl: Ohio State 34, Notre Dame 2o

Really nothing to say here- I'm still grinning. One piece of frustration (other than Brent Musberger)... I found out the day after the game that 1) tickets were going for $50 a pair (seems Notre Dame couldn't sell their allotment and there were a ton of extras- tell me again why they have an automatic BCS bid?) and 2) I have a student whose parents live 5 miles from the stadium that I could have stayed with. Dang, dang, dang, dang...

Thanks to Fox Sports' coverage of the NFL, we have two annoying features to cherish during the bowl season: 1) Aggressive promos of network shows (commercials and in-game tie ins... Kevin Pinkham is the master of these), and 2) The following progression: TD/Extra point/commercial break/kickoff/commercial break. Seriously, do we need more commercial breaks? I haven't been so exasperated since the dawn of the "stay tuned for more /commercial break/show credits/commercial break/new show intro/commercial break" era. Ladies and gentlemen, the blessing that is DVR.

The good news is that Fox Sports gets ALL of the BCS next year (except the Rose Bowl), including the new fifth game (played on January 8- you're telling me a playoff would take to long?). I wonder how much the BCS will fall out of favor once ESPN/ABC get off of the bandwagon and can start blasting it on air.

Sugar Bowl: West Virginia 38, Georgia 35.

Most surprising game that no one watched... Georgia was heavily favored in front of a home crowd, no one (including me) took the "Big Least" champion Mountaineers seriously, and then WVU goes out to a 28-0 lead in the early second quarter. The Dawgs come roaring back to make it a game, and WVU wins by faking a punt on 4th and 5 at the Georgia 48 with 1:45 to go in the game. Faking a punt. HUGE guts, that Rich Rodriguez. Almost as huge as Florida faking a punt on 4th and 2 at their own 17.

While I thought WVU had a great game, I wasn't impressed with their team. Their offense essentially spreads the field so they can run with their QB, and even their punt team has the same philosophy (until someone finally rushes the punter... dead punters usually end experiments with spread punts).

Nevertheless, they proved that they deserved to be there, in spite of all of the haters...

"How many innocent people will have to go to jail?" Well, I can think of one, for the crime of overacting.

Orange Bowl: Penn State 26, FSU 23. Paterno 79, Bowden 76.

I didn't get to see this three overtime thriller (too busy watching Oklahoma State kick the crap out of Pepperdine in basketball), but I was torn throughout. I wanted Penn State to lose so tOSU could rise in the polls, but a PSU win would bolster the Big T1e1n's record in bowls. Nonetheless, it was interesting that this went until 1:00 AM eastern, well after the coaches should have been in bed (after their 3:00 dinner and Matlock at 4:00).

Funny that it came down to kicker issues, given the history. Both of these (all time winningest) coaches have lost huge games because of missed field goals and extra points. "When karmas collide- tonight on ABC"

As another aside, it was sad to see Penn State's linebacker Posluszny injure his knee. Speaking of karma; how is this guy the best linebacker in college while AJ Hawk is the defensive player of the year for the Big T1e1n and an award winner for the top interior lineman in the country (both over Posluszny). I guess the 'Linebacker U' tag is good for extra credit.

Again, another home game for one of the teams. In fact, three of the four bowls were home games... and you wonder why Florida and California schools are successful. They have great weather for year round practice (at every level- Pop Warner to college), and get home games in January. I'd love to see a bowl in Lambeau or in Soldier Field; but the closest we get is the Boise Idaho bowl game.

"He's an all pro receiver, but this week Jerry Rice begins his most difficult challenge... on Dancing with the Stars" You're kidding, right? That's tougher than going across the middle against Steve Atwater?

Rose Bowl: Texas 41, USC 38. whoops... Vince Young 41, USC 38.

And yes, my brother called it. This was the best BCS championship game ever. The OSU win means more to me, but this was a better game.

Vince Young is a man. M.A.N. He exists to deliver touchdowns the way cake exists to deliver icing. And yet, some NFL idiot will draft him low and try to make him a wide reciever.

Reggie Bush not only wasn't the best player on the field, he wasn't even the best player on his own team. LenDale White was unstoppable last night... it would be hard to pick between the two if I wasn an NFL GM. Do you want consistancy and durability or flash and sizzle? 5 yards every carry, or a lot of short gains with the possibility of ripping off a huge one? Again, this is why I'm not writing for ESPN.com.

But Bill Simmons is. Here's his running diary- Sports Guy: Coach Fredo

For the record, USC has 1.5 championships and not 2, and I can't believe that the BCS committed ABC/ESPN networks kept propogating this lie- LSU won the BCS championship two years ago, while USC won the AP poll (the "we hate the BCS and will always vote for another team if possible because we're sportswriters who like to be important once a year" award).

A call from my friend Troy confirmed what I believed last night- Pete Carrol (and USC) were just too arrogant. Two fourth and 2 situations and you don't put the Heisman Trophy winner in at all? You're up by 12, and you (and everyone in the free world) know that Vince Young will be running the ball for the rest of the game, and you can't/don't come up with a plan to stop him? I'm glad I'm not the only person who thinks this.

I was really nervous that we would have "the big one" last night- a mega earthquake triggered by all of Southern California jumping off of the USC bandwagon. These people really do not deserve good athletics- all of the pro teams that they have in LA started somewhere else and moved here, and they've managed to lose two NFL franchises. Realistically, I understand this completely- there's too much else to do here. But be honest about that instead of acting like you're the best sports town ever when one of your teams starts to do well. With all of my students who were "pumped" about the game last night, only 10% of them could name more than three players on USC. Ah well...

The few true USC fans that I do know are still griping about the missed call that gave Texas a TD (Vince Young's knee was down) and the fumble/incomplete pass. Here are my responses: 1) What about the interception and fumble that wasn't reviewed and that Texas didn't get (to deprive USC of a score- DB caught the ball, landed on his back, fumbled out of bounds)? 2) What about other subjective calls (LenDale White's constant facemasking of defenders, the unsportsmanlike conduct penalty he should have received for high stepping into the end zone, etc.)? 3) That call didn't cost you the game- your inability to play defense and convert fourth downs in the fourth quarter did. It's like the Nebraska game- the last play didn't give Michigan the loss, their 11 point choke did. Same for the Trojans, just make it a 12 point choke.

Given that USC was the "third greatest team ever" (according to ESPN), and they weren't even the greatest team this year , what does that say about the level of college football we've gotten to see this year? I believe it will be difficult to top it... Unless the Buckeyes win it all next year.

Either way, I'm looking forward to it.

How Can We Miss You...

Originally posted 01.04.06
if you won't go away?

And why did this have to happen on the eve of the Fiesta Bowl?

And, for all of the "haters" out there... would you please remember that he only had 47 yards in the National Championship Game?

Why does no one talk about his failed stint with the Broncos... he's just "former Buckeye..."

Ah, well...

The Most Wonderful Time of the Year

Originally posted 01.02.06

Yup- college bowl season. Well, that and March Madness.

Here are some initial thoughts on what we've experienced so far, thanks in part to our friends at the "Worldwide Leader"

Did you know that there are 28 bowl games, involving 56 teams? Since there are only 119 Division 1A programs, that means that only 53 % of Division 1A teams won't go to a bowl. Or, as my mom used to say, "Of course you're special... just like everyone else."

In "There is a God" news: LSU 40 Miami 3. Best part- LSU faked a field goal while up 34-3.

ESPN has created this ridiculous "Bowl Challenge" to see who has the best conference. The significant problem with this is that you rarely see an even matchup outside of the BCS. What you see is a #2 against a #5... because it's all about the money and not about best matchups.

On that note, here's a great paraphrased quote from ESPN's Kirk Herbstreit (a tOSU alum) at the Alamo Bowl (more on that later):

It's a shame that the Nebraska's and Michigan's don't have a chance to play for the title (in a playoff), and that the Bowl system is more about 'which team will sell more tickets' than seeing great matchups...

I agree most heartedly, but want to be honest... this has never been about great matchups. If it were, we'd have a playoff. It's about money for corporate sponsors and athletic departments, who have become too used to the revenue to ever change. That's the reason why football is the only NCAA sport where the NCAA does not recognize a champion. You read that right... the football 'champion' is crowned by either the AP or coaches' poll and not the NCAA.

Revenue is also why Notre Dame can get a bowl game with a number of wins rather than by winning a conference... and why there's no incentive for them to make their schedule any more difficult.

Which leads into Bowl Quote #1:

"As excited as I am to be playing Ohio State (in the Fiesta) , I'm a bit disappointed... I think we could be in Pasadena playing for the championship..." Charlie Weis

In response: Ohio State 34 Notre Dame 20

There's been enough said about this already by everyone else, but I want to make a quick observation. It wasn't that close. Tressel Ball made this a more exciting game than it needed to be (If I have a heart attack, I'm sending him the bill). And if the officials call any of the holding that the ND linemen were doing, it's a shut out.

Look, it's not like Ohio State lost two games by a total of 6 points either... and both teams that beat us are BCS teams (not Michigan State).

While we're at it, can we get off the "OSU 2006" bandwagon already? Yup, we'll be good, but not that good (we lose our defensive heart and soul, as well as our O-line). Plus, whenever tOSU is favored, they give me a coronary. And, we still have to go to Texas.

I hate Brent Musberger... Hate is a strong word- what about "loathe". And I don't care who AJ Hawk is dating.

Bowl Quote #2:

"We could dwell on it by telling the kids we're not getting respect, but the biggest thing is, it happened and there are some easy reasons to understand. We do think we deserve to be in that group of teams, but we can't do anything about that. The best thing we can do is prepare and beat Oklahoma in the Holiday Bowl." Mike Bellotti

In response: Oklahoma 17 Oregon 14

Look, you're in the PAC 10. No offense, but you're hanging your hat on the fact that you almost beat USC (by "almost" I mean "if the game had stopped after the first quarter"), and you beat a Fresno State team that lost 4 games (including a choke against Tulsa). Sorry, west coast folks. What you do recreationally is the reason for living for people on the other side of the Rockies.

Which brings us to the Alamo bowl. Nebraska verses Michigan. Yup, HUGE game for me (my wife is a Husker, and I'm not the biggest Wolverine fan in the world).

By now you've already seen the highlights of the final play. Here's an interesting set of quotes from Gregg Easterbrook who writes for the New Republic and has a weekly column on NFL.com called Tuesday Morning Quarterback

The 50-Man Defense: You're forgiven if you were not up 'till midnight Eastern watching the final play of the Michigan-Nebraska bowl game -- but the officials weren't watching, either. Nebraska led 32-28 with two seconds remaining, Michigan ball on its 36. The Wolverines threw the hook-and-ladder, and then started lateraling. There were five laterals and two fumbles on the play -- see the final entry here -- which resulted in Michigan's Tyler Ecker running down the right sideline to the Nebraska 13, where he was tackled. But the instant the clock hit all naughts the Cornhusker sideline rushed the field; at least 50 Nebraska players, coaches and team officials in sport jackets coming onto the gridiron while the play was still in progress. Two Michigan coaches also came onto the field during the play. Why were no penalties assessed? The NCAA rulebook -- see section FR114, 9.2, under "conduct of players" -- specifies it's a 15-yard unsportsmanlike penalty to enter the field during a live ball. That's 15 yards per incident, meaning about 50 unsportsmanlike conduct penalties could have been assessed against Nebraska, plus two against Michigan. The result would have been offsetting penalties and Michigan replays the down.

But TMQ thinks a different rule should have been enforced -- the "unfair acts" provision. You've probably never heard of the "unfair acts" clause -- I've watched far, far too much football and never beheld this rule invoked, but it seems tailor-made for what happened at the Alamo Bowl. See page 116 of the NCAA rulebook; Article 3.C states, "If an obviously unfair act not specifically covered by the rules occurs during the game, the referee may take any action he considers equitable, including assessing a penalty, awarding a score or suspending or forfeiting the game." For Nebraska to flood the gridiron with 50 players and team personnel during a play, with the game's outcome on the line, was an "obviously unfair act" -- it deprived Michigan runners of roughly half the field. Watch the replay; as the ball madly bounces, all the Michigan runners move toward the right, because on the left side of the field is a 50-man wall! It's pretty hard to score against a 50-man defense. Yet Michigan almost did score against a 50-man defense, which tells us the Wolverines might indeed have gotten a touchdown and won the game had Nebraska not committed an "obviously unfair act" by denying Michigan access to half the field. (From an officiating standpoint it makes no difference whether Nebraska intended to be unfair or simply rushed the field by accident because the Huskers thought the game was over; whether a penalty is committed intentionally or by accident is irrelevant.)

Every coach from the high school level up knows that extra players cannot run onto the field during a play. Every coach knows that if players do run onto the field during a play, the penalty is harsh. Nebraska's entire team ran onto the field during the game-deciding play -- yet not a single yellow flag. That's spectacular officiating ineptitude. Maybe the Sun Belt Conference zebras working this game were anxious to head to the locker room and didn't care about doing their jobs properly. Whatever the explanation, "Sun Belt Conference officials" will now be synonymous with incompetence, while "Alamo Bowl" will now be synonymous with botched game supervision. That leaves the question of how. Had the game been adeptly officiated, the unfair acts rule would have been enforced. You can make a case the referee should have awarded Michigan a touchdown: Otherwise you're saying that whenever a runner breaks into the clear, it's legal for 50 guys to walk on the field and stand in his way. Here is what I think would have been the "equitable" resolution: The ball should have been placed at the Nebraska 13, the point the runner reached, and Michigan given one untimed down.

In case you're wondering, the NFL's equivalent provision, Rule 11.2.2.2., states, "The referee may award a touchdown when a palpably unfair act deprives the offended team of one." So if the Alamo Bowl situation happened in the NFL, officials could have awarded six points, but could not have dreamed up an "equitable" solution such as allowing one more snap. Another provision allows the commissioner to reverse the outcome of an NFL contest if a team commits an "extraordinarily unfair act" that has "a major effect on the result of the game," which pretty much was the Nebraska-Michigan situation.

I agree fully, and know that Michigan had a chance (even given the circumstances) to still win (toss the ball behind you as you go out of bounds!). It's a shame for both programs to be involved in a game that had such horrible officiating; and that's what people will remember. They won't remember Taylor's leadership after being hammered again and again. They won't remember how a Lloyd Carr team choked away another 10+ point lead in the fourth quarter. Nope, it'll all be that play.

Not that it matters to me. Michigan still lost.

Go Bucks!