BSC Bowl Bid Weekend

NCAA Football fans please stay glued to your seats this weekend. When it comes to BCS Bowl bids, nothing is written in stone, until the final whistle blows.

ANYTHING can happen on BCS weekend.

In 1992, the first year of the BCS, #2 UCLA lost its season finale in a 30-6 rout to Arkansas, while #3 Kansas State went down in the Big 12 championship game. Because of their shortcomings, neither team was able to compete in the National Championship game vs. Tennessee.

In 2001 the Volunteers were ranked #2 and on their way to playing Miami for BCS title. In the SEC Championship game, Tennessee was upset by LSU 31-20. The #1 Miami Hurricanes ended up embarrassing Nebraska, 37-14, in a controversial Championship match up. The Cornhuskers did not compete in the Big 12 Championship game that year; it was a shocker that they had an opportunity to compete in the Big game.

One of the most shocking momenments came in 2003, when Oklahoma lost the Big 12 Championship, but kept their #1 ranking, despite #2 USC coming off of a dominate win in it's season finale, who than fell to the #3 slot. Sneaking into to the #2 spot was LSU, who had just came off of a win at the SEC Championship, leaving USC left out in the cold.

Heading into the final week of 2006 Ohio State had a #1 ranking with no game to play. At the time, #2 USC was eliminated from the BCS Championship after losing to unranked UCLA; meanwhile #3 ranked Michigan was idle. The #4 ranked Gators ended up winning the SEC, and resulted in the leapfrogging of Michigan and USC on their way to a National Championship.

In 2007 a major rollercoaster took place when number #1 Missouri lost the Big 12 Championship, ironically, that same night #2 West Virginia went down. #3 ranked Ohio State who was once again idle faced off against a previously ranked #7 LSU, who entered the game as a surprise after winning the SEC Championship in the final week.

Most Likely BCS Bids:

Penn State
Cincinnati
Florida
Alabama
Texas
USC
Utah
ACC Champ
Big 12 Champ
The winner of Boise State and Ohio State ??????????

S. Ballah

College Football Weekend Recap

Texas has bypassed Alabama using its upset win in the Red River Rivalry vs. Oklahoma to earn a Number one position for the first time in 24 years.

"Being ranked No. 1 shows respect for what we've accomplished through the early
part of the season" said Coach Brown., "but nobody really knows who No. 1 is at
this point,"

6 of 10 teams in the top 10 polls remain undefeated; Texas, Alabama, Penn State, Texas Tech, Oklahoma State and Brigham Young.

While the remaining 4 teams each have one loss a piece, Oklahoma, Florida, Southern California and Georgia. For the 4th time this season we will see a new #1 team, as the number one spot was previously held by Georgia, USC and Oklahoma.

Texas received 39 first place votes to Alabama's 26 first place votes to round out the top 2 slots.

Penn state, played well in their 41 point route over the Badgers. Joe Pa could've coached this game from a vacation resort, yes it was that bad. Make no mistake about it, this was defiantly a statement game. No wonder PSU moved up 3 spots from No. 6 rank to No. 3. There is no question Penn State deserves to be mentioned in the same sentence as the rest of the nation's top teams.

The Sooners drop 3 slots to No.4 as they couldn't hold off the Longhorns. Oklahoma lead by 11 twice in the first half and even had an eight point lead in the third quarter, but couldn't finish plays off. It was a great game, its too bad they had to meet so early in the season.

Florida moves up 6 slots to No. 5, as they jumped on LSU from the start of the game and never let up, as they pounded LSU 51-21. So much for all the trash talking! Memo to: Ricky Jean- Francois, next time you promise to Knock Tebow out the game, well you might want to suit up. That's right, Jean-Francois sparked all of the bulletin board material, yet he didn't even suit up for the game.

USC and Texas take care of business as they hold the No. 6 and No.7 spots firmly.

Oklahoma moves into the No. 8 slot with a 28-23 upset win over a prolific scoring offense in Missouri.

BYU at No. 9 and Georgia at No. 10 to cap off the Top 10.

S. Ballah

PAC 10 Preview - 10-10-08

Pac 10:

USC vs. ASU (the replacements are coming)

The game should just be dubbed the all-injured bowl (just kidding). Considering the fact that when both Arizona state and USC bump heads, QB Mark Sanchez who suffered a bruise in a 44-10 win over Oregon will not be in the line up. He's been out of practice all week and is still discussing the possibility of sitting out. Sanchez' back up, Mitch Musting has been prepared all week as the potential starter. Despite being the 4th qb on the depart in the start of the season, Musting moved up to the 2nd slot last week. Musting, the Arkansas transfer has a lot of talent, but forces pass in tight spots, which get him in trouble.

From the sun devils side, QB Rudy carpenter is nursing a sprained ankle he suffered in a loss to Cal. While USC can cover up the loss of Sanchez with a guy who went 8-0 in the SEC last season, Losing Carpenter leaves Arizona State without its best player. If Carpenter can't go, that means he’ll ruin his streak of games started, just falling shy of his 37th consecutive game. Arizona State will have to turn to Junior, Danny Sullivan, who will be making his first career start, at USC in THE COLLISUM. This is not the ideal starting place for any QB, midseason.

Unless of course, you're a Trojan football player.

Whatever the Case... Pete Carroll knows how to pick em' and knows how to coach em'..

So I'm with TROY...

S. Ballah

Big Ten Review - 10-10-08

Big Ten review: 



We Are PENN STATE (now broadcasting in High Definition)

Nittany Lions#6, or like I like to call em' JoePa's Boys, are 6-0 and continue to look impressive, as they bring the Big Ten's
most explosive offense into Wisconsin on Saturday night vs. the
Badgers, who need to win in order to

avoid a 0-3 conference start.

Wisconsin enters this week as one of the nation's most desperate
teams. The Badgers are desperate for a conference win. They realize
that starting 0-3 would destroy all hopes of winning the Big Ten.
Coach Bielema has decided to stick with Quarterback Allan Evridge.
HE
wants the 5th year senior to improve on his accuracy. Evridge has
received much criticism for his 53.2% passing with 3 ints’ in the last
couple of games. Although the Badgers passing game has been hurt due to
injuries to junior TE, Garrett Graham and senior TE, Travis Beckum, 
the run oriented badgers cannot afford lack luster play from the QB
position.

"The bottom line is we've got to expect the ball to be
delivered with better accuracy,"

Bielema said.

Coach Rodriguez is still steaming from Michigan's 25 pt home loss to
Illinois. Coach R said,

"The wolverines played a little bit soft in all
aspects of the game"

He's promising to fix things up, and he must do
so fast, as Michigan is currently 2-3.


Tackle, Dorsey and Wr Evans out of Michigan are still suffering injuries and remain questionable for Saturday's game.

Michigan State's big play defense has them riding a five-game win
streak which has noted them 23rd in the AP poll. The Spartans climb in
the ranks marks their first appearance in 3 years. Northwestern, 
like Michigan State, is on a five game win streak, but unlike the
Spartans, find themselves on the outside looking in. Much of Northwestern's success is coming from senior running back Tyrell Sutton.
Sutton is averaging 124.0 scrimmage yards per game, ranking him sixth
in the Big Ten. Despite being only half way through the season, Northwestern has already come within one win of matching 2007's final
record. Sutton's take on the sudden success and recent buzz on campus,


"We just have to maintain that buzz and make sure we stay humble and
stay grounded and play every game like we're 0-0."

S. Ballah

SEC Review 10-10-08

SEC review:

All eyes on Florida vs. LSU

The Florida Gators have been looking all season to add more offense to assist Tim “Superman” Tebow and the versatile Percy Harvin. Coach Ubran Myer may have found his answers last week in Jeffrey Demps and Chris Rainey. Rainey and Demps are packed with speed, and seemed to out run everyone on their way to the end zone last week as both went over 100 yards.

The gators will need this balanced scoring attack to beat a very good LSU team.

Florida vs. LSU started to heat up a few days ago.

Defensive Tackle, Ricky Jean- Francois made a statement to the press when asked about facing 2007 Heisman Trophy winner Tim Tebow, saying:

"LSU Tiger Defenders would try and knock Tim Tebow out of Saturday's game."

Because of the negative press the comment caused on both sides, Jean-Francois was forced to make a statement on LSU's official website clarifying his words.

"We never go into any football game trying to hurt a player from the other team," Jean-Francois said in the release. "My comments in regard to Florida quarterback Tim Tebow were misinterpreted and were intended to reflect the style of football that we play at LSU. We have great respect for Tim as player and a competitor. By taking him out of the game, I meant, as a defense we are going to try to make him ineffective. I'm sorry that my initial comments were interpreted another way."

My take on his comments are, I felt that what he said was misinterpreted, and was done in a competitive manner. After all isn't Jean-Francois earning that scholarship money to knock opposing players out of the game? It's football people.

Despite all of the bulletin board material that has been added to the contest, this will be the first time in 18 years that national champions from the two previous years will meet. The last time this happened was in 1990, when 88' champion Notre Dame beat 89' champion Miami, in a 29-20 classic in South Bend.

According to LSU Coach Les Miles,

"If you find any weaknesses, tell me,"

Miles said in regards to Florida.

"They don't have any weaknesses. Being ranked (No. 11) is underselling them some. It will be our strengths against their strengths. "Our team will have a real want to compete in that game. If we play like we can, I like our match up. Make no bones about it. This game will be fun to play. The players will enjoy this one."

This will defiantly be a great much up. A must see!

S. Ballah

Ballah's College Football Preview pt 3

Every college football season seems to bring in a new regime of impact freshmen. This years class, like many others are packed with blue chippers. I've put together a list of a few individuals who I believe will arrive to stardom, sooner rather than later.

Here is our Facebook Freshman Class ...(expect lots of hits on the field and facebook pokes off)


OFFENSE:

QB: Andrew Luck, Stanford

Look for former NFL Pro Bowl QB and head coach Jim Harbaugh to take Luck under his wing and develop him into a premiere college Quarterback.

RB: Darrell Scott, Colorado

The young Buffalo offense gelled late in 2007. Their only knock was the lack of speed and production at the RB, in which their leading rusher ran for 400 yards. Scott possesses a great combination of size and speed, and will cause havoc in the Big 12 for years.

WR: Julio Jones, Alabama

-------------------------->>>>
Anything less than stellar would make this kid a bust:

 A SEC coach said "Jones is a combination of Randy Moss and Larry Fitzgerald."

Michael Floyd, Notre Dame

In 2007, Notre Dame was ranked 117th in scoring offense for Division I-A college football teams. Look for Blue chipper Michael Floyd to help with his big play ability.

TE: Kyle Rudolph, Notre Dame

As I stated for Michael Floyd, Notre Dame needs all the help they can get. Rudolph has it all the size, the skills, he will make things happen in the red zone.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

DEFENSE:

DE: DaQuan Bowers, Clemson

The most dominate Freshmen on defense in quite sometime. He will give ACC offensive Coordinators nightmares for years. He has the strength to stuff the run, but also possesses the speed to terrorize off the edges.

DT: Marcus Forton, Miami

After dominating against the Nations best during the Army All-American week, Forston all but solidified himself as the best down lineman. He has the size, the strength, and quickness to help right the wrongs in Miami.

LB: Nigel Bradham, FSU

Noles best breaking line breaker since Derrick Brooks. He approaches the game with the willingness to dominate in every aspect (physically, mentally and instinct.)

CB: Patrick Johnson, LSU

The tigers collectively had one need, and one need only, the secondary. Johnson is more than just a big hitter, he can flat out cover. He may share minutes between CB and Safety.


S: Will Hill, Florida
-------------------------->>
Florida's young secondary had its share of struggles in the 2007 season. Look for Hill to come in and make a immediate impact. To a young but talented defensive group. 

He is extremely versatile and will be used in offensive sets as well as special teams.

Next Up - 

Conference Predictions 

S. Ballah

Ballah's College Football Preview pt 2

Men on Fire:

If you haven't noticed our government is currently in a recession, in short no job is a sure thing. That goes for any occupation, from accountants to coaches:

Tyrone Willingham, Washington:

What more can a coach ask for? Seattle has it all, superb facilities, administrative staff support, a firm recruiting base…What aren't we competing in bowl games? Correction, why aren't we contending for a Pac-10 title? Step your game up homie!

Ron Prince, Kansas State:

Let me start by saying, he managed to secure a recruiting class full of Junior College players. Okay I'm done.

Mike Stoops, Arizona:

Another 4-5 season wont cut it. In fact, if the Wildcats don't smell a bowl game. It's over for Stoops.

Kirk Ferentz, Iowa:

When your getting $2.8 million per season, there will be certain expectations you must meet.

Charlie Weis, Norte Dame:

After going 3-9, with one of those losses coming from Navy, YES I SAID NAVY. Weis is beginning to make Ty Willingham's stint with the Fighting Irish look brilliant. Don't believe anything you hear about his job security. The clock is ticking…

Greg Robinson, Syracuse:

Note to Coach R, your now 7-28 With the orange men. Last season things got ugly quick. By week 3, a loss vs. Pitt, the Carrier Dome was calling for your head. This season same rules apply, winning early is a must. I think It's time for change.

Honorable mention:

Ralph Friedgen, Maryland

Doug Martin, Kent State

Todd Dodge, North Texas

Dave Wannstedt, Pitt

David Bailiff, Rice

Neil Callaway, UAB

Robb Akey, Idaho

Bobby Johnson, Vanderbilt

Mike Sanford, UNLV

JD Brookhart, Akron

Randy Shannon, Miami

Tim Brewster, Minnesota

Hal Humme, New Mexico State

Mark Snyder, Marshall

Brent Guy, Utah State

Joe Glenn, Wyoming

Charlie Weatherbie, La. Monroe

Mike Price, UTEP

Steve Kragthrope, Louisville

Ricky Bustle, La. Lafayette

Tom Amstutz, Toledo

Chuck Long, San Diego State

Gene Chizik, Iowa State

Stan Brock, Army

Freshmen To WATCH!!!

Next Up ---------------------------------------->>>

 

Mr. Jones 

S. Ballah

Ballah's College Football Preview pt 1

In the minds of College Football fanatics, the start of a new season beings in January, the day after the National Championship.

August has finally returned!

Before we get into This upcoming 2008 season, lets discuss some coaching changes made after the 2007 college football season.

Ranking The Coach Hires:

1. Paul Johnson, Georgia Tech:

Johnson is a very good football coach who has simply won everywhere (Navy, SMU). He's been waiting years for this type of opportunity. He approaches the game with a contagious attitude. Johnson is a X's and O's type of guy, one of the best. Look for Johnson to assemble a strong staff. With an opportunity to recruit superior athletes, look for Johnson, THE OPTION KING to install the triple option offense (similar to his Navy days).

2. Rich Rodriguez, Michigan:

Rodriguez appears to be more than a consolation

prize here. In four of the last five seasons, he has lead West Virginia to 4 conference championships, going 60-26 overall. His key to building West Virginia into a Big East Power was recruiting players that wanted to play for West Virginia. Can Coach Rod work his magic in Michigan?

3. Rich Neuheisel, UCLA:

Neuheisel has returned to his familiar stomping grounds, where he quarterbacked the 1984 Bruins to a Rose Bowl win. He comes to the Bruins with lots to prove. With some great years at Colorado and Washington under his belt , despite both gigs ending on a sour note. Colorado went on probation because of Neuheisel and he was axed in Washington for participating in a NCCA Tournament Pool. Most recently, a brief stint with the NFL's Baltimore Ravens as QB coach and offensive coordinator. Finally, the Bruins have found their "Guy", who wants to compete, and who wants it in the worst way.

4. Houston Nutt, Ole Miss:

Nutt comes to the SEC after putting in 10 years at Arkansas. He's quite familiar with the SEC, he knows what it takes to win. Can Nutt who accomplished a lot with a little, take advantage with prized recruits? How soon will the Rebels become SEC contenders again?

5.Bobby Petrino, Arkansas:

I wasn't feeling the way things went down with the Atlanta Falcons, despite three games remaining in the NFL regular season, Petrino bolted with no remorse. You cant be entirely mad at the situation, he did sign up to Coach the NFL's most exciting offensive weapon in Michael Vick. When it was clear Vick was no longer in the teams plans, he made his move. The fact remains, Petrno is an offensive genius, and there are few with the ability to create a better offense. Petrino has always been an SEC type of guy, and he has the chance to regain any lost respect he suffered from his brief NFL experiment. Critics want to know, can the best player caller in the game bring championships: conference and national, to Fayetteville?

6: Art Brilles, Baylor:

After turning Houston into one of the more elite of the non-BCS schools, I believed BCS job offers would've been pounding on Brilles door. In the end, a move a few hours north, and a takeover of a struggling Baylor program , proved enough to secure one of the games brightest offensive minds, in Brilles. What makes the Baylor job challenging, is the fact that its in the same neighborhood as schools like Texas, Texas A&M, Texas Tech, and Oklahoma. How does that make for recruiting? With all that being said, Briles is a Texas guy. Having someone who is familiar with Texas recruiting could be an asset.

7. Bo Pelini, Nebraska:

Despite no head coaching experience, there is something about Pelini that Dr. Tom Osborne loves. We'll have to trust him on this one. Pelini has served as an assistant in the NFL and he ran the husker defense in 2003 and served as interim head coach for Nebraska's bowl win over Michigan State that year.

8. Kevin Sumlin, Houston:

Great offensive mind who has held coaching positions for all skilled positions. He's a excellent communicator and recruiter, it wont be long that he proves his most recent work at Oklahoma was no fluke. Houston has arrived.

9. June Jones, SMU:

Jones has went 76-41 in his nine seasons at Hawaii, ending with a BCS bowl loss to Georgia in the 2007 Allstate Sugar Bowl. This offensive specialist, and former NFL head coach could not pass up a five year deal that makes him the highest paid coach in Conference USA.

10. Steve Fairchild, Colorado State:

For Fairchild, there really is no place like home. He will return to his alma mater, where he once quarterbacked and served as an assistant coach. He walked away from a great start to what seemed to be a promising NFL career. I guessing being a NFL offensive coordinator (Bills) was not as appealing as rebuilding his ala mater.

11. Mike Sherman, Texas A&M:

Look for Sherman to bring a pro-style offense, along with experienced coaching staff. Joe Kines will join Sheman's staff as Assistant Head Coach and Defensive Coordinator. It's only a matter of time before Aggies push Texas and Oklahoma.

12. Jerry Kill, Northern Illinois:

Heading to a decent program after earning his stripes in a lower division.

13: David Cutcliffe, Duke:

Duke has been at the bottom of ACC football for quite sometime. Look for Offensive genius Cutcliffe, to turn things around in one of the nations toughest jobs. Although Cutcliffe is not known for rebuilding, but the Dukies will contend for a bowl game in the near future??


Notable mentions:

Ken Niumatalolo, Navy

Greg McMackin, Hawaii

Bill Stewart, West Virginia

Larry Fedora, Southern Miss

Paul Wulff, Washington state

Next UP...

Coaches on FIRE!!!

S. Ballah