Tonight's Pick

Well I went 3-2 on opening night and will not mention the loss by .5 pts on a late TD. Anyway, the games are weak today--apart from the Fordham at Army rematch--but I do have a selection for the late game baring of mild interest. And the main story in the build up to that game concerns a coach returning to the team he recently left. I must admit i find those stories boring. But I am excited to see the jilted team, Boise State, begin what could well be a special season. The Broncos welcome back former head coach Chris Petersen, who is leading his new charges, the Washington Huskies,in year two of what is not a rebuild but a rearranging. And that is the problem. Washington is very young (9 returning starters) and is creating a new identity. Boise is experienced (17 returning starters) and itching to beat the Pac 12 one more time, especially the Pac 12 program that poached their coach. While I believe that Washington can hang for a bit, this game could blow open in the 3rd Q. Pick: Boise -11.5

Opening Night Recap

While the level of play last night was typical for first weekend football (i.e., the kids need some work) there was at least plenty of excitement. Here are some quick thoughts: Michigan has a lot of work to do--but we all knew that already. South Carolina survived but do not look like SEC East contenders. Arizona needs the injury bug to move on or it will not remain in the top 25. Contenders in need of style points should not play at Minnesota. Horrible work by officials at end of Colorado-Hawaii game is an embarrassment. Great win for long-suffering Hawaii coach Norm Chow nonetheless. Same too for Ron Turner as his FIU Panthers upset 17-pt favorite UCF.

College Football Kicks Off

Here we are opening up what promises to be another exciting college football season, and I am ready for the action. Actually the season kicked off in fine fashion Saturday with Montana's 38-35 win over four-time defending champion of FCS North Dakota State. That game ended on a winning TD run on the final play and while I cannot promise continued excitement of that enormity, I will say that this season should be a good one. Tonight will not shake up any early season rankings, but there are a few games of interest. Out in Salt Lake City, the Jim Harbaugh run at Michigan begins with a tough one versus the Utes, a team that had their way with the Wolverines last year in Ann Arbor. While I--and, well, everyone--expect Harbaugh to eventually do well at his alma mater, this first test is just too tough. Michigan will play smash mouth in an attempt to keep turnovers down but the Utah front seven, that dominated in last year's game, is experienced and loaded for bear. The Michigan D should be fine this year too, but Utah's offense features stud back Devontae Booker, who rushed for 1,512y, and veteran QB Travis Wilson. Michigan hopes to spring the dynamic play-making ability of CB and returnman and offensive surprise Jabril Peppers on opponents this season, but he should be somewhat negated by Utah's superb special teams and veteran QB. Pick: Utah covers -6. The first game on the schedule tonight is South Carolina versus North Carolina in Charlotte. This game pits two of the more disappointing teams in the country last season, but one of them, SC, has a big edge in track record as the vets on the squad know what it takes to win more than ten games in a season. They will begin their 2015 campaign the right way with a win over the still-struggling Tar Heels, who have to rebuild their disastrous D from last year. New DC Gene Chizik has too much work to do to stop the Gamecocks, who just need a decent game from new starting QB Connor Mitch. The Gamecocks two-headed run tandem of David Williams and Brandon Wilds will keep the chains moving, while stud WR Pharoh Cooper will be tonic to a young QB. UNC has a fine offense themselves, with stud QB Marquise Williams leading a unit that returns 10 starters, but they will not be able to score enough against a SC D that is improved from '14 to offset the weaknesses on their own D. Pick: SC -2.5 While Vanderbilt should show some improvement after an awful year in 2014, they will be hard-pressed to contain the explosive Hilltoppers who will be pumped up to open in an SEC stadium. Stud QB Brandon Doughty returns at the helm of an offense that scores in bunches. Pick WKU -2.5 That is three favorites in a row and so I owe you a dog. And so I am going with Minnesota at home. Normally picking a solid Big Ten team at home coming off an 8-win season would not be too ballsy, but in doing so I am going against highly-ranked TCU. Making it easier is that I am getting 16.5 points. Look, TCU knows it has to play well tonight on ESPN, but any motivation from not making the playoffs last year was used up when they blew out Mississippi in the Peach Bowl. The Gophers were banged up last year in losing at TCU by 23. This year they have the motivational edge in that nobody gives them a shot, despite the talent being nurtured by coach Jerry Kill and his staff. Plus they play really well at home--just ask OSU. Pick: Minny +16.5 For those of you on the West Coast--or insomniacs out East, the late Colorado at Hawaii game should be fun. Both teams are improved but I am a big fan of Colorado coach Mike MacIntyre and feel that they can pull away from the home team late as WR Nelson Spruce proves unstoppable. Pick: Colorado -7.5

Embracing Michigan's All-White Road Uniforms

In this era of slick packaging and glitz and shine trumping tradition, the decision this week by Michigan--supposedly at the behest of coach Jim Harbaugh--to wear white tops and pants on the road this season is refreshing. The word is that the new coach wanted to pay homage to the 1974 club, along with 1975 the last to sport these uniforms, and anything that pays homage to the college football that I first remember, is alright by me. The 1974 edition of the Wolverines had another magnificent season under head coach Bo Schembechler in finishing 10-1. Why only 11 games you say? Well in losing the final game of the season 12-10 to Ohio State, with Michigan missing a field goal at game's end, the Wolverines could not go bowling as Big Ten rules at the time designated conference-winning Ohio State, via tiebreak, as Rose Bowl representative and the other nine schools as unable to go to any post-season game. That changed right after this season due to the misfortune of a Michigan program that went 30-2-1 over the 1972-74 seasons but never tasted bowl play thanks to the conference's desire to make the Rose Bowl the be-all and end-all and to a controversial vote of conference ADs after the 1973 season. For Michigan seniors in 1974, the heartbreak must have been tremendous. In 1971 they would have been ineligible to play as freshmen when the Wolverines won the conference and went to the Rose Bowl. 1971 was the final season that freshmen were ineligible. Then they played dominant ball for three straight seasons only to be thwarted time and time again from getting to the Rose Bowl, all while playing the final three seasons that Big Ten teams were banned from playing in any bowl other the the Rose Bowl. This is a rare classy move by Harbaugh, who was a young football player in Ann Arbor in the mid 70s when his dad was a coach on Schembechler's staff. This squad is not as good as the 1974 team but they will play hard.

Mess at UAB

College football has enough visible problems to make it tough for even us big fans. Lately though the ugly underbelly of the sport keeps coming up to the surface in a way that makes one truly shake his head. With the UAB football situation there are some clear-cut snakes here that are making decisions about that program that are not in the best interest of UAB football. And make no mistake about it. We are not talking incompetence. While there is plenty of that in college football, this case is one featuring very crafty people maliciously taking down this program. They were caught in their lies and now the program is returning, but a lot of damage has been done and no one has lost his cushy job over the situation. While President Watts of UAB is rightfully taking the brunt of the heat over this, his manipulator in the situation, Paul Bryant Jr., is not getting enough heat. And while it is sad that he is the Bear's son, we must separate that from our view of him. Without that he really looks bad. Pathetic is probably a better word. The other problem with this whole story has been the amount of coverage it has received in relation to the amount of coverage the football team has generated over the decades. No one nationally cared about Blazers football until this story became so juicy and soon nobody will care again. That's nationally--myself included--but there are a lot of peple who care about the program and they fortunately got their message out. Hopefully the media will stop being so star driven and start covering the entire sport. Like a corrupt board suddenly acting in the best interest of what they are supposed to oversee, that is probably wishful thinking.

Another Funny NFL Draft

Well another NFL draft has come and gone and yet again ignorance ruled the day. I always find it humorous that the so-called experts spend so much time discussing players--and the potential draft position debate for players begins well before players end their college playing days--but then are almost always completely wrong come draft day. But the best thing is that they are allowed to then rip teams for viewing players differently then they, the experts, do. That is a great job. Be wrong nine out of ten times and then be allowed to complain that the real experts did not take your advice. I also love it when they have no idea how the player in question and team in question would actually fit in real life. They seem to have finally figured out the difference between a 3-4 defense and a 4-3 but they still mock players that do not fit schematically to teams whether it be the type of blocker and offensive lineman is or the way a DB has been taught to play. And despite all of the knowledge we have now on these players--or perhaps because of that overkill--the draft still produces chuckles when these guys do not know anything about the player when he is drafted. As a New York Giant fan this became apparent when the Giants drafted DB Mykkele Thompson from Texas in the fifth round. As soon as he was drafted he was treated as if he was a backup player from my alma mater Fordham, and not a two-year starting player for the Longhorns. They had no idea who he was and, pathetically, some experts even took to twitter to admit to the world that they did not know the kid. Huh? Thompson was deemed a player unworthy of being selected at a certain time in the process that failed to take in two major bits of information. One is that he was finally fitted with corrective lens midway through this past season, after which his play improved to the point that post-lens he was one of Texas's leading tacklers. He then, after not being invited to the combine because, again, some folks deemed him not worthy of being drafted, he displays excellent measurable at his pro day. In baseball, scouts would have been all over him because they have a reason, his vision, for improved play and they have his 40 time etc to fall back on. But in football he gets lost in the shuffle. But that gets me back to the experts. Okay this kid is off your radar for some reason. But you were watching tape of his teammates, like DT Malcolm Brown and LB Jordan Hicks, who were drafted high. And you were watching tape of Texas's secondary when they tangled with teams like West Virginia and Kansas State, who had sought after receivers. Right? Well Thompson had seven tackles versus the Mountaineers when the entire secondary had to tangle with Kevin White, who did catch 16 balls but did not get much after the catch in totaling "only" 132 yards. And Thompson had 11 tackles against KSU. I could go on and on. The point being is that if you are truly an expert then you should know the name of a two-year starter at Texas who had 11 tackles against KSU. Right?

SEC North?

When Urban Meyer began his fantastically success current run at Ohio State he got in trouble with his fellow conference coaches for poaching recruits, something that the Big Ten always frowned upon. But Meyer was doing something he had always done, and is accepted throughout the nation, and the message was clear: the Buckeyes were going to do whatever it took to win and the rest of the conference had better do the same if it wanted to compete. Meyer has gone on to win 38 of 41 games with the Buckeyes with only one conference loss so the lesson is clear. Do whatever it takes to win and you will be lauded when you do win. And so now we sit in February and on signing day OSU pulled a receiver from Arkansas whose high school coach was fired for supposedly giving money to said receiver's family. There are rumors swirling that there is even more to the story but a lot of that could be due to hurt feelings on the part of the locals. Even so this is a huge red flag. Meanwhile the Buckeyes are over the limit when it comes to the number of scholarship players on the current roster and have been before--they have had SEC-like roster movement over the past few years--there is no player currently pointing fingers and accusing the program of tossing him aside. That said, it is dangerous to play the you-need-to-have-more-than-85-in-February game to overcome potential defections and injuries as there will be a year when you wake up August 1st with extra players who will have to be "cut". It is an awful product of over-signing and has been something that has dampened the SEC's recent success. Like with the Hill situation there does not seem to be anything clearly wrong being done by Meyer and his staff but there is some smoke. Winning can only cover up so much of this crap. Michigan coach Jim Harbaugh, meanwhile, just hired the mother of Stanford safety Wayne Lyons as director of player development. The offer has to be good enough to get the woman, a former teacher, to move from Florida to Ann Arbor. Her son, who was recruited by Harbaugh but never played for him, has wavered on what he plans to do next year. He has graduated and can transfer. This again may be much ado about nothing, but the impression be given is that Harbaugh is doing what he can tokeep up with Meyer. It just does not smell right.