Rest in Peace Joe Paterno

There is a great deal to say about the life of Joe Paterno, but for now let me just say that he leaves a huge void in the college football world. We at SMQ offer our condolences to his family. Joe Paterno was one of the all-time greats of the sport and his accomplishments speak for themselves.

With his dying so soon after his forced retirement, the focus is on the effect the problems at Penn State had on his health. We will never know, of course, but we do know that Paterno was greatly moved by how quickly Bear Bryant died after his final season (four weeks after it ended) and here we are four days shy of the 29th anniversary of Bryant's passing in 1983.

Change of Pace

I am tinkering with the idea of an alteration to the focus of this blog with an eye toward more historical pieces, including posts designed to look at today's college football topics through a more historical lens. I hope you enjoy them.

View From Bennett Avenue

This is always a weird time of the season for college football fans. There is plenty of withdrawal after weeks of non-stop action amidst the craziness of the last few weeks of recruiting. New staffs are being formed, players are deciding on pro careers and next season's schedule is being poured over for opponents to feast on. Alabama won again, which does not make a lot of people happy, and Heisman winner Robert Griffin announced that he was going pro after a stellar career in Waco.
Griffin, of course, had to come out. He has accomplished as much as could be expected as a college player both athletically and academically and has already been injured. No need risking that again. Plus it looks like a top ten pick awaits him. Good luck to him and to the wave of new players that will accept the mantle from stars like Griffin, Luck, Richardson, Blackmon and James.

View From Bennett Avenue

Wow, that game was dreadful. Not much to say about it really. Although LSU had a very worthy regular season, Alabama deserves the title and won convincingly enough to put away any claims by Oklahoma State. Congrats Tide on yet another national championship.

The Big Game

Well it is finally upon us. Alabama-LSU II. Like a big-time boxing match these two heavyweights will battle for college football supremacy in a hard-hitting contest that will feature limited yet therefore hugely crucial, offensive fireworks. In a departure from the rest of the football world where offense reigns, as evidenced by not one but two different teams setting records for most points scored in a bowl game this post-season this game will feature the two best defenses in the sport. And like in round one it is hard to imagine many points being scored.
So what will happen? Who knows? I think LSU is the better team but beating a very good rival twice in one season with the title on the line is really difficult. Just ask Bobby Bowden and Florida State, who needed to sweep two games against Florida for the 1996 championship but came up short in the Sugar Bowl. Despite having just written that I am taking LSU to win 20-17.

View From Bennett Avenue

I picked SMU today, I swear! Who did the folks at the Big East root for today, current member Pitt or future member SMU? I assume the Mustangs and they certainly looked impressive. The conference has a bright future, even if most people cannot see it.
I thougt it was funny that PSU folks expected a big-time coach to come their way. The mess has to be cleaned up first. Meanwhile, did you see how much money O'Brien will make? Crazy.

Today's Picks

I like Kansas State and the points in what hopefully will be an intriguing battle of contrasting styles.

View From Bennett Avenue

Was a degree from Brown the main requirement for Penn State in searching for their new coach? As I have mentioned before, Penn State had to sacrifice something in hiring a new coach. The Urban Meyers of the world would not have touched it. What the school has clearly sacrificed was head coaching experience and considering how tough it will be to win at Penn State in light of everything going on for anyone let alone someone without that experience, I wish him luck. We do not even know who will be running the athletic department at PSU and now there seems to be signs that O'Brien does not have the support of past players.
Of course all we have right now in January are the considerable number of roadblocks facing this new staff. But it is not September 1 and O'Brien has nine months to get this program focused on winning football. One advantage he has is that the team's offense was so bad this year that he could look like a savior by simply scoring more points. Another advantage is the schedule which avoids both Michigan and Michigan State and has replaced Alabama with Virginia (not that the Cavs are a pushover). O'Brien needs to prove that he deserved this opportunity--win and everyone will be happy.

View From Bennett Avenue

Clemson? The opposing QB is going to take the ball and shuffle it off to the RB streaking trough the backfield. I assume that you are going to work on stopping that play all spring.
Possible reason for that performance is that the only way teams feel they can stop these new offenses that feature tons of guys with speed in space is by going smaller and faster on defense themselves. That makes sense except for one key factor: THEY CAN'T TACKLE! The Tigers seemed to be playing two-hand touch or flag football, anything but tackle. Meanwhile West Virginia can beat Clemson badly and gain a ton of yards against LSU, but cannot solve the mystery that is Syracuse football. Go figure.
And yes the Big East has had another successful post-season (with one more game to play) and this one was not boosted by wins over MAC teams. Although a young Louisville squad could not pull out a win against NC State, Rutgers routed Iowa State, Cincy controlled Vandy and the Mountaineers looked great. What is good about these wins is that they came at the expense of the Big 12, SEC and ACC. Plus newcomers Houston and Boise looked pretty good.

View From Bennett Avenue

Michigan State beat Wisconsin in basketball tonight in overtime, thus giving the Spartans wins over highly respected opponents in an extra session in both football and basketball over a 36-hour period. Wisconsin? In that same period they lost both the Rose Bowl and tonight's huge hoops game in agonizingly close fashion, with each ending when refs went to tape to determine clock ran out on Badgers (Wilson's misguided attempt to spike ball and game-tying three-pointer that was eventually waived off). Weird.

View From Bennett Avenue

The BCS has delivered two exciting games so far, which is not surprising as the Rose Bowl and Fiesta Bowl were expected to be compelling. I must admit that the Rose Bowl had a bit too much offense for my liking as there was a time when neither team was getting any stops. The offenses looked good in the nightcap too, of course, but there was more of an attempt to play defense. Either way, each losing team could have won and we were clearly seeing four of the best teams in college football. I do not think Oklahoma State could beat LSU--although I would love to see Blackmon versus the Tigers secondary--but they will finish second or third overall and that is not too shabby.
I do not think that two of the best teams in the country will square off tonight in the Sugar Bowl, but the game should be close. The Big Ten desperately needs Michigan to look good tonight, while Virginia Tech is still looking for its first marquee win of the season. I took Va Tech and the points but am not confident as the best player in te game will play QB for te Wolverines.

View From Bennett Avenue

Well, one game this afternoon turned out to be a good one. Michigan State was able to eliminate some of the bad taste in their mouths from both the Big Ten title game and last year's post-season debacle. And Georgia may have lost but they look loaded for 2012. And QB Cousins is a good kid and I am happy for him. He may or may not carve out a 5-7 year career as a back-up QB in the NFL, but he will be successful at whatever else he chooses to do.

Today's Picks

January 1 used to be my favorite sports day of the year. The cream of the college football crop paired against each other with the national title in the balance. Some of my earliest memories took place on January 1, whether it be Rose Bowl upsets or games that produced champions the old way. You cleared the day and enjoyed how the sport ended its season in a blaze of glory.

Now, with the games moved this year to accommodate the pros, we have such pillars of the 2011 season as Ohio State and Florida squaring off. We do have some interesting match-ups like Michigan State versus Georgia, Oregon pitted against Wisconsin and Oklahoma State squared off against Stanford, but not one game played today has any bearing on the national championship (we have another week to wait!). And that's a shame. But I will be watching, and enjoying most of it. It is college football after all.

Today I like Penn State, South Carolina, Ohio State, Michigan State, Wisconsin and Oklahoma State.

Happy New Year

Have a wonderful and healthy 2012. Here's hoping the off-the-field news in college football is better than 2011.