Archive for the ‘College Football’ Category

Since it looks like the Braves are going to miss the playoffs for the 3rd straight year, I’m glad college football is back in full in full force for me to focus on.  Going 2-0-1 on Thursday night was a great way to start the season .  Here are this weekends picks (in CAPS) for some key matchups.

1. UGA @ Ok State (-5.5).  Everyone was talking about SEC vs. Big 12 this offseason, and being a homer, I always go SEC.  I think Georgia will be able to put some points on the board against the Oklahoma State defense.  Conversely, the Cowboys will have a hard time getting their high powered offense against the Bulldog defense.  In the end the SEC will prove they are superior.

2. Brigham Young vs OKLAHOMA(-22.5).   This game is in the new Cowboy stadium, Sooner fans will be packing the stands to this game.  With Bradford, Brown, and Murray, there is just too much offense to go against the Sooners covering.

3. Missouri vs ILLINOIS (-6.5).  Missouri is going to more balanced this year, and better than most people are giving them credit for.  But, Illinois, with Arrelious Benn and Juice Williams will be too much for the Tigers.  Illinois wins this high scoring affair.

4. Virginia Tech vs. ALABAMA (-6.5). I have a hard time believing Va Tech will be able to put points on the board with Tyrod Taylor and the backup running backs.  The Hokies defense and special teams will always be good, but Alabama is loaded and all Greg McElroy needs to do is manage the game – I see Alabama covering comfortably.

5. MIAMI @ Florida State(-6).  In recent seasons, they moved this first game up so FSU and Miami could play again 11 games later in the ACC Championship game.  Whoops.  Both teams have been a shell of their dominant selves of the early decade.  The offenses are going to have a hard time getting anything going in this game. The kickers better be ready to punt and kick field goals, because this game will come down to the field position and special teams.  If FSU wins, they won’t cover.

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1. (Yawn) USC will win the PAC-10 again but will be shut out of the BCS championship game again, and will play in the Rose Bowl for the 4th straight year.  Matt Barkley will have a big year, but I have a hard time believing a frehsman can take this team undefeated – which is what it will take to get them back in the title game.

2. Oregon will have a down year in Chip Kelly’s first season as head coach – as we saw on Thursday against Boise St.  They’ll also need a new running back

3. Oregon State will continue its success from last year behind the Rodgers brothers finishing 2nd behind USC.  Look for James to lead the league in receiving and Jaquizz to lead the league in rushing again.

4. Washington will finally win a game – but look for a rebuilding year for Steve Sarkisan as the Huskies only get 2-3 wins.  It will be good to see a healthy Jake Locker back in the lineup for the Huskies.

5. Look for UCLA to have a much improved 2nd season under Rick Neuheisel, even pulling off an upset in Knoxville against UT.

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1. Florida State will edge out Wake Forest to win a bad Atlantic Division with 8 wins and make it to the ACC Championship game

2.  Duke will have on of its better teams in over a decade, but will fall just short ofaking it to a bowl game.  David Cutcliffe has this team moving in the right direction and will get them bowl eligible soon.

3. Georgia Tech and Virginia Tech will battle it out in the Coastal Division, with Va. Tech edging out Ga Tech and beating FSU in the ACC Championsip game.

4. Miami will start the year 0-4 on its way to a horrible year – which will be Randy Shannon’s last in Coral Gables.

5. Again, the ACC will have a down year, most of the teams will finish the year with 5-7 wins, it will only take 8-9 wins to make it to the ACC Championship game.

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1. Oklahoma will repeat as Big 12 champions and lost to Florida in the BCS championship game.  Their defense and running game is deeper than Texas, so I give them the nod

2. Texas will lose to Oklahoma and gripe about being left out of the championship game again.

3. Oklahoma State will be the Big 12 version of Ole Miss – a lot of hype going into the season, but they will have a hard time stopping anyone on defense.  They will be fun to watch for fans who like scoring, but will give up their fair share of points and will cost them in the long run.

4. Missouri will surprise a lot of people, even though they lost stars Chase Daniels, Jeremy Maclin, and Chase Coffman, team.  Look for them to win the Big 12 North and face Oklahoma in the championship game.

5. Colorado will make a bowl, but will have a disappointing year.  Dan Hawkins was brought in to get them to the next level after all his success on the Blue Turf in Boise – but he has only generated 13 wins in 3 years and will be on the way out soon if the Buffaloes don’t turn things around fast.

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TAMPA, Fla. — In a stunning move 10 days before the start of the regular season, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers have dismissed offensive coordinator Jeff Jagodzinski.

The Bucs announced the move in a statement Thursday morning and said quarterbacks coach Greg Olson will take over as coordinator.

“We needed more direction,” Bucs coach Raheem Morris said in an early-afternoon news conference. “We needed more precision. [We weren't] getting it at the time, so you make the change.”

Jagodzinski was hired by Morris in January three weeks after a rocky ending to his time as head coach at BC. Against the wishes of BC’s administration, Jagodzinski interviewed for the head-coaching vacancy with the New York Jets and was fired the next day, ending his two-season stint in Chestnut Hill.

Seems like Jagz has a problem following direction.  Maybe he should have listened to the BC athletic director back in January and he’d still be employed. Fired twice in less than  8 months for being insolent- that can’t be good for your resume.

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College Football finally kicks off its season with a handful of games tonight.  Here are the picks for the three main college football games tonight (picks in caps):

SOUTH CAROLINA  @ NC State (-5).   Russell Wilson showed a lot of promise as a Freshman, and South Carolina has lost a lot of pieces off their defense. But you have to pick the SEC over the ACC.  This will be the year Spurrier gets over the hump in South Carolina.

Oregon @ BOISE ST. (-3).  You can’t go against the Broncos at home on the blue turf.

Utah St @ Utah UNDER 52.  Utah hasn’t named a QB yet, and teams pretty much such at scoring on the first weekend.

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1. Florida will win the SEC and BCS Championships, albeit with more difficulty than everyone is predicting – possibly even with 1 loss on the season.  The Andre Debose injury will be big if he misses a chunk of time.  The wide receivers are young, and the team will be tested against LSU and Georgia.

2. The SEC West will be a fun conference to watch – It’ll be a tossup between LSU and Alabama on who will win the division and play Florida in the SEC championshio this year – I give the slight edge to LSU because of the experience Jordan Jefferson gained last year.  Ole Miss will have another solid year – but I am not buying the hype that they win the West.

3. Georgia will surpise a lot of people this year and win 9 to 10 games this year in the regular season.  Joe Cox will be a good game manager, Richard Samuel will have a breakout season, and the defense will be strong.

4. Lane Kiffin will have a decent year at Tennessee – the rest of the teams in the conference will be gunning for him because of his big mouth, but they will put up a respectable 7-5 record.

5. Vanderbilt’s offense will be much improved from last year with Larry Smith at QB.  With a solid defense, they will pull off at least 1 major upset this year on the way to another bowl game.

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ANN ARBOR, Mich. — The University of Michigan announced Sunday that it has launched an investigation into allegations that its football program regularly violates NCAA rules limiting how much time players can spend on training and practice.

The announcement from Michigan athletic director Bill Martin came after a Detroit Free Press article in which players from the 2008 and 2009 teams said the amount of time they spend on football during the season and in the offseason greatly exceeds NCAA limits. The players spoke to the newspaper on condition of anonymity because they feared repercussions from coaches.

“We are committed to following both the letter and the intent of the NCAA rules and we take any allegations of violations seriously,” Martin said in a written statement.

“We believe we have been compliant with NCAA rules, but nonetheless we have launched a full investigation of the allegations in today’s newspaper,” he said.

Martin also said that the school had reached out to both the Big Ten and the NCAA about the allegations. He said the university would have more to say after its inquiry was done.

Big Ten compliance officials began interviewing players and officials with the assistance of the Michigan compliance staff in Ann Arbor on Sunday and it will continue Monday, a source familiar with the process told ESPN’s Joe Schad.

Former Michigan wide receiver Toney Clemons told ESPN on Sunday night that all of the allegations reported are accurate.

“The allegations are true,” Clemons said. “Nothing is fabricated or exaggerated in that story. I was there on Sundays from 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. or 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. depending on if guys needed treatment. You were there daylight to nighttime.”

Clemons has since transferred to Colorado. On Saturday night, another former Michigan starter and a current Michigan player who asked for anonymity started said the reports of excessive training and football-related activities were accurate.

“On Sunday, it was lifting, film, dinner and practice,” Clemons told Schad. “I usually got out around 10:20. I truly don’t want to be associated with the program back there. But I am going to help benefit my teammates back there by speaking and giving testimony.”

Coach Rich Rodriguez and the university’s compliance director, Judy Van Horn, have denied that the football program violated NCAA rules.

Rich Rod was 1 win away from the BCS Championship Game with West Virginia, and since he left, he’s faced a lawsuit for breaching his contract, a 3-9 first season at Michigan, and now allegations that they exceeded the NCAA mandated allowable time to practice per day and week.  Not a good way to start a new job.  He would have been better suited to take the Alabama job in 2006 – his spread offense would have been perfect there once he got his personnel in, and we wouldn’t be handing the championship to the Gators every year.   We all know players in the midwest have cankles and are too slow to run the spread offense – good luck getting the next speedster from Florida leave the warm weather in the south to play in Ann Arbor.

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Vanderbilt Coach Bobby Johnson has named sophomore Larry Smith the starting quarterback for Saturday’s season opener against Western Carolina.

Smith, who started the Commodores’ 16-14 victory over Boston College in the Music City Bowl, beat out senior Mackenzi Adams for the job during preseason camp.

“I think Larry’s got a lot of tools to run our offense and be able to throw the ball downfield and do some things,” Johnson said today at a press conference. – via The Tennessean

I always thought Larry Smith was the best QB on the roster, and now he’ll get to show off his talent.  It was really good for Smith to get some game experience  last year against Wake Forest and starting the bowl game against BC.  Mackenzie Adams has always performed much better coming off the bench, so if Smith does get hurt or is ineffective in a game, we have a more than capable player to replace him.  And Jared Funk is no slouch either as the 3rd string QB.   Its a shame Terrence Jeffers isn’t going to be able to  suit up  at receiver, where we are really lacking some experience.  Jeffers was looking real good spring drills, so we’ll need the other guys, to step up big time.  Hopefully the offense can gel this season and get some points on the board – they were miserable to watch at times last year, and were bailed out by the defense multiple times.

I expect big things from Smith this year

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College Football Pre-Season polls came out today, and no surprise Florida was ranked number 1 in both polls. Well I guess the only real poll is the AP, since we all know the USA Today is a coloring book that can be read from cover to cover in 15 minutes while on the toilet.  Surprising to see that Texas actually got 2 votes somehow.  But the big news circled at the bottom on the “Others Receiving Votes” is Vandy receiving 3 votes in the AP Poll.   With games against 5 teams in the top 25 and no bye weeks – this season will be pretty tough, but I see another dominant effort by the defense, and Larry Smith leading the charge on the offense – and another bowl appearance.  Mark it Down.

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