Friday, September 23, 2005

Is a Hawkeye a poisonous nut too?

So it's 6 PM on a Friday night, can you guess where I am? If you said "at work" then you are either clairvoyant or you spend WAY too much time reading this blog and really need to find some more productive ways to spend your life. I suggest recreational use of numerous drugs, but that's just one man's opinion.

I'd like to complain loud and long about why there is no way that I should be the person closing on a Friday (since I'm the department head and all) but since I have only worked two full days all week (tonight being one of them) and am also off for the weekend it's tough for me to muster up too much piss and vinegar of my current predicament.

Tommorrow's slate of games was weakened a bit when it was announced that the LSU-Tennessee game (the weekend's margquee matchup, in my humble opinion) was moved to Monday night. What does this mean? Not a whole lot other than I'll be able to break out the two TV football watching system for the second consecutive Monday night. Hopefully this Monday will give us a little more when it comes to consistent action. The Cowboys-Redskins finished up with alot of drama but prior to that we sports fans were stuck with two terribly boring games. Not that I'm bitter or anything. Really, I'm not. I would certainly rather watch two boring NFL games than "Lost" or whatever else these networks show during the week. As it stands now there are four (non-Gator)games which I'm most keenly interested in.

In case you don't know, the Gators will be traveling to Lexington where they haven't lost in like, 200 years to take on the sinking ship that is Rich Brooks' Wildcats. These schmoes are 1-2 and that one win was a narrow escape against Idaho State. This should be a game where the Gators can work on alot of the things that they need to improve on if they have any hope of going to Atlanta in December. Though you never quite know where the look ahead factor will rear it's ugly head in College Football. As further proof of this, Florida almost (read: should've) lost this game two years ago and Louisville damn near lost to this same Wildcat team to open the season. The way that Urban Meyer prepares his team for this game will tell you an awful lot about his ability to motivate his guys, no matter the circumstances.

Meechigan @ Wisconsin: Has any fan whose team wasn't involved in the game ever watched an entire Wisconsin game (the whole game) and not been genuinely bored for at least one significant stretch? I say no. There is just nothing exciting about watching this team plod up and down the field. Barry Alvarez has done a fine job of building a program and should be commended for it, but there is just no way of getting around the lack of aesthetic beauty associated with Wisconsin Football. Oh yeah, if you hadn't heard Chad Henne really blows this year. I'll go with Wisconsin to win as Brian Calhoun gets 65 carries and powers the Badgers to a victory over a still overrated bunch of Wolverines.

Ga. Tech @ Va. Tech: OOOH! The fabled Battle of the Institutes of Technology. What's the over under for the number of players (excluding kickers and punters) who actually major in some sort of engineering in this game? 6? 8? Just wondering. Georgia Tech looks much improved this year since Chan Gailey finally decided to inform Reggie Ball that they are keeping score in college football these days. I could be wrong here (doubt it) but I can't see the Ramblin' Wreck coming out of Blacksburg with a W. The Hokies are the superior or equal to Ga. Tech in every phase of the game and they have a tremendous homefield advantage as well.

USC @ Oregon: Alot of people are picking this as the upset special of the weekend. I am NOT one of those people. This is the same Oregon team that gave up 21 points to Houston (Cougars not Texans) in the season's first 8 minutes right? Ok, I was just making sure I hadn't slipped into a coma or something and missed an entire year of football. Even if USC were to take this game extremely lightly, I still can't see them winning by less than three touchdowns. I know this really chaps alot of people's asses but the PAC-10 just isn't that good folks. I know, I know...Autzen Stadium is one of the toughest places to play in America. Right. These guys from USC who played at Jordan-Hare two years ago and in D.C. versus Va. Tech last year are going to be all kinds of rattled playing in a stadium that barley holds 50,000 stoned, Birkenstock wearing, tree huggers. If Oregon is still in this game midway through the third quarter, I will celebrate by doing a bong hit (consecutively) for every point away from a tie score we are. What does this mean? If Oregon is down 3 then I'll be thoroughly enjoying Keith Jackson's ramblings. If Oregon is down 9, then I'll be asleep by 6:30. Stay tuned.

Iowa @ Ohio State (Game of the Day): Iowa got caught looking ahead to this matchup two weeks ago when they went into Ames to take on the Fighting Eustachys and ended up getting their hats handed to them. Of course losing QB Drew Tate in the second quarter didn't help much. Anybody who watches this game is going to see 4 to 5 NFL first rounders at the linebacker position alone. We know all about the Ohio State LBs but Iowa's Chad Greenway and Abdul Hodge may be better pro prospects than any of the LBs that Tressell and Co. will be suiting up tomorrow. In a related note, of all the possible first round 'backers in this game (Greenway, Hodge, AJ Hawk, Anthony Schlegel, & Bobby Carpenter) only one isn't white. I'll give you two guesses who it is?

I'll be honest with you. After Tate, Hodge,& Greenway I don't know much about Iowa other than their coaches name and that his son is one of the O-Lineman. This reason coupled with the fact that I think the Buckeyes have more playmakers on offense leads me to say that the Buckeyes win. By how much? I don't know. How about you try doing some work for once, huh?

As for the NFL games on tap this weekend. I'll try and give some similarly lazy analysis of these games at some point tomorrow afternoon/evening. The games that I'll be touching on will be as follows: Steelers/Patriots
Broncos/Chiefs
Chargers/Giants
Jaguars/Jets...and of course The Bay of Pigs clash between the Bucs and Packers.

15 comments:

Jerry said...

Here's my take on the Pac-10 -- some of the teams are actually pretty good (and I hate the Pac-10. I want them to be the sackless run and shoot hippies that I've always thought they were.) Unfortunately, the quality of the teams has been proven on the field.

BUT it's much much easier to run the table in the Pac-10 because the environments are so much easier to play in than any of the other Big 5 conferences, especially the SEC.

Mark said...

I would agree with that with the added caveat that the middle to bottom of the PAC-10 is virtually impossible to count on for upsets of any magnitude. Once you get through the top 2 or 3 teams there is little talent and even less depth.

Mark said...

This Wisconsin-Michigan game has suddenly become highly entertaining. That was the second successful flea flicker that I've seen in the last week. How many times can you say that?

Oh yeah, Louisville is getting their ass kicked in Tampa. 31-7. Go Bulls...hahahaha.

Mark said...

USC has the ball to start the third quarter. Down 13-10.

Mark said...

USC just marched down field and scored on the first possession of the second half.

Mark said...

Wisconsin has really made me look like an idiot tonight. They just went up 25-22 with 24 seconds left.

Mark said...

I forgot to mention that Usc is now up 24-13...Ova.

Mark said...

Wisconsin wins. I am sorry Badgers fans. I take back everything I said.

Mark said...

End of the 3rd. USC now leads 31-13. The sound you're currently hearing is 12,000 bongs simultaneously firing up in Eugene.

Mark said...

Reggie Bush is really good.

Though I have to say that this game could have (possibly) turned out far differently if the refs hadn't just blown two calls.

They called back an Oregon TD on a chop block that actually happened AFTER the play was over. Then just now they allowed USC's TD to stand because they were too busy getting all googly eyed over Reggie Bush's run to call an obvious black in the back. Screw you PAC-10 refs.

Jerry said...

The Michigan game was on my #1 TV the entire time because Swint (Michigan fan) was over. Very boring until the end. Then Swint stormed out of my apartment. Michigan blew that game. They have much better players than Wisconsin. I wonder if Carr is ever going to be on the hot seat.

Oregon would've needed a miracle to win. USC it too good. They're like the 1980 Soviet hockey team.

Jerry said...

It's been too long since I've heard a good Sylvester Croom sob story....

Jerry said...

Jimtavis Walker!

CFunk28 said...

The first thought that came to my mind on a possible Oregon upset was don't you need to play some type of defense to beat a great team? I was impressed when they picked off Leinert, but that was clearly a fluke. My wife's reaction to the UM loss was also very amusing, even more so when you consider I was openly rooting for UW. She totally lost it when Henne fell on his ass on the last play. Seems like he's been doing that a lot lately. Greenway and Hodge are both great LBs, but neither runs like AJ Hawk. That alone will make him the first LB to go in April.

Mark said...

I was openly rooting for UW as well. Not because I hate Michigan but because I have a man crush on Brian Calhoun. He's so small, he's like a black Ben Stephen running around out there. The last 10 minutes or so of that game were great.

How can Lloyd Carr not give Matt Guttierez a shot at QB now? Wasn't he just as highly recruited as Henne coming out of high school?

Hawk is easily the class of a very good LB class. He's as atheltic as any of the other backers and his instincts are unsurpassed by any other LB that I've seen play in college in quite some time.