Trades, trades, and more trades

So the Mavs pulled the trigger and traded for Kidd, after a couple other blockbuster trades also went through, with the Suns getting Shaq and the Lakers getting Gasol (for basically nothing- unbelievable). We haven’t seen so many big names get traded mid-season in a long time, so it’s pretty exciting.  

But I want to focus on the Kidd deal. Here’s my prediction, for the record: it won’t help Dallas. They won’t win a championship with him (unless they get some more help), and they won’t have any more success than they would have had with Devin Harris (although granted, that part is impossible to know).  

So, that being said, I’ve decided I’m still ok with the deal. I agree with Bill Simmons of ESPN.com who always gripes about how no one in the NBA has the balls to attempt trades like this, so when someone finally does step up and do it, even though I don’t think it will help them in this case, I think it’s a good thing to at least try something. If you feel like your team is missing something, you might as well shake things up a bit. And upon further examination, the Mavs really didn’t have to give up all that much to get Kidd. They kept Dirk, Howard, Stackhouse, and Terry somehow, while giving up a bunch of scrubs. So from that standpoint, you have to be ok with it for the Mavs. 

Now here’s why I don’t think it helps them, even though I support the fact that they pulled the trigger and took a chance. 

Now, apparently I am the only person who thinks this, but I’m just not sold on Jason Kidd as a team leader. I just came up with this theory this week, but I think he is a unique point guard who has the ability to pile up individual stats (like assists and triple doubles) that APPEAR to be beneficial to the team- how can assists be anything other than unselfish, right?- but that really, he is more skilled at piling up stats without really accomplishing anything. I could be wrong, and many will disagree with me, but that’s the way I see it. He’s been a malcontent for most of his career, and color me unimpressed with the fact that he went to two Finals and lost both times. Going to the Finals in the East is not even really an accomplishment. 

But the way I see it, if he’s so great, why can’t they score points and win games, in the East, when he has two of the best wings players (Vince Carter and Richard Jefferson) in the entire league? They should be one of the top 5 teams in the conference without breaking a sweat. Why are they out of the playoff race then? What has Kidd ever won? Nothing. He’s famous for getting lots of triple doubles, but that is an individual stat. He gets a pass on that since he’s a point guard, and apparently the only selfish stat anyone can have is points per game, but I am seeing through the b.s. and calling him out. He plays an unselfish position selfishly. Wake me up when the team he is on plays above their heads rather than below.  

I’m not criticizing his skills. At least not his passing and rebounding. I just don’t see how having a point guard shoot 2-13 will help them win a playoff game. And I don’t see how this helps the Mavs down the road. They have a young core with Nowitzki and Howard. It seems like keeping a young, improving point guard like Devin Harris would keep them in the hunt for years to come, and they’d only need to tweak things here and there.

Congress has gone deaf

Meaning their hearing is bad.

Do you see what I did there? That’s pretty clever, I think.

I’m tired of the steroids hearing. I’m really tired of it. I think Bud Selig stupidly put his eggs in congress’ basket, and now I bet he regrets it. The conversations between Congress and McNamee (spelling?) and Clemens are just a sham. It’s going to turn into a he said/she said conversation (which it already has) with no resolution whatsoever. We’re not going to be any better off at the end of it all, and quite frankly as a taxpayer, that pisses me off because millions of dollars are being wasted by this. These hearings were supposed to benefit baseball. They were supposed to somehow improve the sport, and deal with issues. But now all they are doign is dragging one of the game’s finest into the dirt, and giving baseball another black eye.

I used a lot of metaphors in that sentence.

I think what really frustrates me is this: So let’s say that Roger Clemens is lying,  did in fact use steroids. He goes to jail for perjury. What does that do? Absolutely nothing! The steroid issue is systemic, and not based on one persons performance. For ever Roger Clemens, there are a thousand Lefty McFarmleagueingtons that are doing HGH or steroids in hopes of making it to the league. The competition element of baseball, with it’s million dollar contracts and billions in revenues, has transcended the sport, and steroids are merely an byproduct of that issue. If they put Roger Clemens away, nothing, and I mean absolutely nothing, will be solved. It makes me sick to think that with a war going on, and with an election going on, and with a recession looming, our nation’s leaders and lawmakers are spending their time moderating a cat fight between McNamee and Clemens. Ridiculous.

One more thing. Arlen Spector sucks. He’s the dumbass that wants to talk to Roger Goodell about the Patriots “spy gate” thing. Why you ask? Who knows. Maybe he’s a disgruntled San Diego fan. Regardless, it makes no sense for Congress to waste their time (and tax payer money) on inconsequential details such as this. Leave it to the league to decide, and butt the hell out.

 More later on Reggie Herring’s departure.  

Post-Super Bowl stuff

Update on my Super Bowl prediction rant: So sure enough, New York DID win, and now people think Dr. Z is some kind of genius. Those people have been tricked. As I said before, he didn’t know they’d win any more than you or I could predict the future. He just picked that way so that he would look smart if indeed it did happen, and everyone fell for it. But I stick by what I said. It was ridiculous of him. Having a “hunch” is not a football analysis. Sports Illustrated pays him to talk about football, and even when he made his prediction, he flat out admitted that he “can’t handicap this game using traditional methods…”, basically saying, I’m not going to actually look at the football teams and give an honest prediction, I’m just gonna throw something against the wall and see if it sticks. Like I said, taking that position was a no-lose situation. He’s right, he looks like a genius, he’s wrong, he can just blow it off and say that deep down we ALL knew who’d win but what’s the fun in that? So no, I don’t suddenly think Dr. Z is some genius and now I feel bad for being so wrong. I still think he just snookered a bunch of people.
 
So here’s something that’s always bothered me about how the media covers close games. Why, in a game that would have had a different outcome had the losing team made ONE play in the final minute, why does the media then go on and on about how team X won because… and then they list all these things like how they ran the ball, converted third downs, blah blah blah, they just WANTED IT MORE, when really, they won because the other team dropped an interception (or something) on what turned out to be the game winning drive? In other words, the game is clearly a dead heat for 59 minutes, and then whichever team happens to win, suddenly the analysts talk about how the winning team was just better and all this stuff, and there are articles about all the “goats” of the losing team, etc. Well, what if the Patriots (for instance) had intercepted one of those passes they dropped? Then the analysts would be saying a whole different bunch of stuff to explain the whole 60 minutes, when the first 59 minutes were the same either way. Why can’t we all be honest with sports and admit that sometimes, things just went one team’s way at the end? Because that’s really what happens in close games more often than not.
 
A&M’s basketball game against OU last Saturday was a perfect example. It was tied with a couple minutes to go, and then A&M just got an important loose ball that led to a 3-point play which iced the game. But did A&M really outplay OU? Maybe, maybe not. Certainly on some level, because good teams close out those games more often than bad teams, but I think almost as much of that stuff comes down to who got the breaks in the last minute. The Giants did, the Patriots didn’t. That simple. Patriots are still the best team in the NFL this year, but the Giants are the champs. The best team doesn’t always win. And I’m not at all saying that to complain about the Giants winning. That was a great game, great story. It just reminded me of how silly it sounds now when they talk about the teams, as if the Giants just played mistake-free football and a great game but the Patriots were choking all over the field. One website had a list of “10 Goats for the Patriots” that certainly would have been 10 goats for the Giants if Brady had hit Moss in stride on that second to last pass attempt (Moss was open- how crazy would that have been?). So how can all these people be goats when the game wasn’t even decided yet, and how can something in the 59th minute determine whether or not you were a goat in the 44th?
 
So, my next rant, and I was planning on writing this whether or not Eli got the victory, is on how fickle the fans and media are and how much I hate it.
 
2 months ago, EVERYONE in New York and in the media was hating Eli Manning. Wondering if he’d ever grow up and stuff like that. Um, the guy is in his FOURTH year! He’s AHEAD of schedule! Why is everyone so impatient???? And it’s not like he was sucking or anything. Yeah, he was less accurate than the top guys, but his teams were usually pretty good, yet the guy got crucified because he wasn’t winning Super Bowls fast enough, and he was only in his fourth year. Peyton didn’t even win one until last year, but people expected Eli to be where Peyton is and they forget how awful Peyton was at the beginning of his career. And now of course they worship Eli, saying he “came of age before our eyes” and “grew up” and all this stuff. Hogwash. He was already mature and good but was playing against an entire league of professional athletes who are also mature and good. Then, he played really well for 5 games and won a Super Bowl. That simple. People make way too much out of these players’ failures, and way too much out of their wins. He got on a hot streak and led them to a Super Bowl.
 
What this should teach all these idiotic, knee-jerk fans and media people is two things: First, chill out!! Be patient for once. If you have a quarterback who is halfway decent, stick with him. If Troy Aikman or Peyton Manning had started their careers during the internet age, they never would have lasted, because after they went 1-15 in the first year, they would have been benched and never given another fair chance. Why can’t people look at those examples and see the benefit of letting your quarterback suck so that he can grow and improve and become a winner? People are so darn impatient now, if a rookie quarterback hasn’t started winning by November of his rookie year, he’s a bust.
 
Secondly, well, chill out some more. Why can’t people see what the Giants did and realize that all it takes to win the Super Bowl is a hot streak, and any playoff team can do that? It’s proof that almost everyone has a chance, so why not just keep your guys together and develop chemistry instead of freaking out all the time and benching your quarterback and firing your coach? This business of firing coaches after one year has to stop. Again, the guys that won those 3 Super Bowls for Dallas in the ‘90s were all together in 1989 when they started 1-15. Nowdays when a team goes 1-15 (or even 14-2 like last year’s Chargers), you must fire the coach. People talked about firing Wade Phillips this year after he led Dallas to a 13 win season! Their best season since 1995, and people want the coach fired because he didn’t win the Super Bowl. The irony is, even the mighty New England Patriots didn’t win the Super Bowl! I guess we should blow that team up too?
 
That lack of patience and the “I must have it now” attitude of fans and owner is bar-none the biggest problem in sports today. Worse than steroids, worse than off-field crime, the thing that has ruined sports more than anything else is greedy culture that exploded in the ‘90s. Unfortunately, it will never get better either.
 
But back to football, the fact that the Giants won should shut up soooo many Dallas fans (and other teams’ fans). For one thing, clearly the Giants were good. Their pass rush, which bothered Romo, also happened to bother TOM BRADY. People criticized Dallas for only putting up 17 points on New York. Well, the best offense in the history of the game only managed 14! Maybe people should slow down on the criticism of Romo. For another thing, maybe people will shut up with the criticisms of Wade Phillips and realize that even if you’re one of the best teams in football, no team has exclusive rights to win the Super Bowl, not even the Patriots. So maybe people should realize that the Cowboys had a great year, and with the talent on board they should be in the playoffs for the foreseeable future, and as long as you can get in, you have a chance to win, but at the same time, if you don’t win, it’s not the end of the world. It’s just a competitive league.
 
So football is over now (although signing day is here… might comment on that later), so sad. I did want to see the Patriots win, because I love dominance and greatness and history (I don’t root for underdogs unless their jersey says Texas A&M), and now I don’t think that undefeated record will be challenged again any time soon. But it was such a good game… For the record, I obviously picked the Pats, but I do have several witnesses to vouch for me that in the fourth quarter, I knew it wasn’t their night, and even when they took the lead, I let everyone know that Eli was about to lead a touchdown drive to win it. And then when he hooked up with Tyree for the amazing play, that is really what ended the game. Once they made that play, there was no way they were losing that game. You don’t make a play like that and then lose. God wouldn’t have allowed it. Certain plays define things much larger than the play itself, and that was one of them, and you could tell immediately that it was. They made that catch, and destiny was on their side, no moving it back. Right when it happened, I told everyone I was with that you can book it, Giants are winning this game (and yes, I’m trying to toot my own horn a little… it makes me feel good). And I’m glad I saw it, because like someone on texags.com said, that was a play you tell your kids about. It really was. It was that great.

post superbowl reflections

so threeyard set us up, and i’m going to knock us down. fyi, in the interest of self depreciating humor, this blog is a lot like yelling with a megaphone into a forest. maybe a rabbit will hear you…perhaps a bear. but still, you dont know whether anyone is listening, until said bear decides to find out what the commotion is, and rips you to shreds because you woke his slumber. enough of the metaphors. let’s move on.

i will tell you that i’m surprised by last night…surprised and a slight bit disappointed. not disappointed in the giants, i think they’ve had a helluva season, and a helluva run. what a story…people thinking that eli manning was not a franchise QB, tom coughlin being on the hotseat for the past two years, coming back from being 0-2, very much a david vs. goliath thing. i applaud the giants.

not disappointed that the patriots lost, because secretly i happen to think that tom brady is a douchebag, what with
his dating giselle budndhchene, and his spiky full head of hair (i HATE him)…bill belicheck is kind of a jerk as well (i’ve thought these things, i just couldnt say them for fear of the patriots mafia coming to get me–side note, i imagine them to look like extras from good will hunting).

no i’m disappointed simply because i wanted to see a record like the 1972 dolphins 17-0 fall in my lifetime. i wanted to be able to tell my kids about that. i like the concept of a perfect season, and i like the thought that a modern day team did it,while i was watching. i found myself rooting not for the pats, but rather for their perfect season. two, surprisingly, mutually exclusive elements in my head.

plus i think mercury morris, and the 1972 dolphin team are a bunch of arrogant a-holes. have you ever heard mercury talk? i want their 15 minutes of fame (well more like 36 years of fame) to go away. i know that they want their record to stand, but there are much classier ways to go about doing it, as opposed to going on every TV show and stating that 19-0 was uncomparable to 17-0. go away mercury, and take your disco music with you.

either way, great superbowl. i found myself on the edge of my seat…and not because i have very small chairs. congrats to the giants, and congrats to the entire state of new york.

A Super Bowl prediction

I don’t see why anybody could possibly pick the Giants to beat the Pats unless they are either die-hard Giants fans (or Patriots haters), which is acceptable (I mean, I always have and always will predict an A&M victory no matter who the opponent- although with the recent struggles at A&M I’ve started making 2 sets of predictions- one with my heart, which is always an Aggie victory, and one with my head, which is my attempt at pure objectivity), or people just trying to be different so that on the off chance that the Giants do win, they can claim to be a genius. It’s the second group that I have a problem with. Just picking something wild and crazy for the heck of it isn’t a real prediction- it’s an attempt to look really smart. But it’s not.
 
If you are a true, objective fan of football, there is no possible argument for predicting a Giants victory. It makes no sense. The Patriots are essentially the best team ever. That doesn’t mean they will win every game for as long as they play, but it does mean that an honest intellectual pick of the game’s winner would NEVER be the other team.
 
So, that brings me to Dr. Z, i.e. Phil Zimmerman of Sports Illustrated. He wrote his annual prediction for the game in last week’s edition, and I feel that it was one of the most shameless pieces of writing I’ve ever seen in a major publication. Here’s why. First of all, and this is the more minor of the two problems with his article, he picks the Giants to win. I’m sorry, but you just can’t pick a 6-loss team (or whatever NY is) to beat an undefeated team using any logic. Especially when the teams have already played once, and the Patriots won, on the road no less, yet this game will be at a neutral site. The only argument possible for such a prediction is the whole “it’s so crazy it just might work” line of thinking, but that is not a reasonable choice. It’s a choice whose sole purpose is to set himself apart from the rest of the media so that IF he’s right, he can claim to be the only one who “knew” what was going on. It’s not a prediction, it is merely a professional choice he made. He knows that it’s basically a no-lose situation, because if anyone calls him on the ridiculous prediction, he can just claim that well, we all really knew New England would win, but what’s the fun in that? and just go about his day. So right off the bat, his “prediction” absolutely REEKS of either a complete lack of football knowledge, a complete lack of integrity in what he is paid to do by predicting these games, or both.
 
But secondly, here’s the real pathetic part of his article. Way back in Super Bowl III, the famous Joe Namath game, Dr. Z was already doing his predictions. That game, like this year’s version, featured a very heavy favorite versus a big underdog. He did the right thing and predicted that the favorite would win. How could you predict otherwise if you’re looking honestly at the situation? But it turned out that he, and most everyone else, was wrong, and the Jets won. So what does he do? 40 years later, in last week’s Sports Illustrated, he tried to take credit and claim that, despite what he wrote back then, he really knew that the Jets would win, but he just didn’t write it because it would have sounded ridiculous. Here’s his direct quote, in the January 28, 2008 SI:

 ”I can’t handicap this game by traditional means… I can only go back to Super Bowl III, when… I had a hunch that [the Jets] were primed for a major upset over the Colts even though it didn’t seem logical. So I chickened out and picked the Colts…”

No, what’s ridiculous is trying to claim you were the one and only genius who knew something 40 years ago, even though you publicly were on the other side of it. I’m sorry but that is one of the worst examples I’ve ever seen of a journalist being slimy. You can’t have it both ways. Seriously, as a sports fan and as someone with a degree in Journalism, that disgusts me. Bush league.

 So, for my prediction. Not much football analysis coming here, because honestly, what else is there to say that hasn’t been said? This Patriots team is the most talked about team ever. Whether talking X’s and O’s or intangibles, you can not make a legitimate case for them to lose, so I am picking them to win 38-22. Brady will throw for about 350 and once again, be the MVP.

A Vince Young update

OK, so in the past I have written about the extreme overrated-ness of one Vince Young. And so this week, due to the complete ineffectiveness of Tennessee’s offense, they fired offensive coordinator Norm Chow (noted offensive genius, at least until this year).  

This kind of makes me laugh, kind of makes me angry. Basically, Jeff Fisher is saying that it’s not VY’s fault the offense sucks, it’s Norm Chow’s. I find this to be a pretty laughable idea. Norm Chow’s quarterback pedigree is as good as anyone in the business. If he couldn’t make the “great” Vince Young into an even average NFL quarterback, maybe it’s Vince Young who’s the problem.  

Now, my disclaimer is this. I do think that VY could be a better quarterback if the NFL coaches who work with him would abandon the whole idea that an NFL quarterback needs to be a drop-back passer and nothing else. VY’s strength, the entire reason he was so successful passing in college, was that he was free to run any time he wanted, and he was very good at it.  

I think that if an NFL coach would have the balls to let VY run, and then mix in the pass off of that, he could become a legitimate NFL quarterback. His game wouldn’t look like the other NFL QB’s games, but it could be just as effective at moving the team. But that’s one of the problems with the NFL. Coaches are TERRIFIED to take risks. Coaches in the NFL are so afraid of losing that they are reluctant to try anything different than what has already been proven in the past. That’s why there’s no diversity in the NFL. Every team’s systems are similar. Sure, some teams run more than others and vice versa, but the formations are the same, the plays are the same, it’s all the same. They aren’t willing to innovate nearly as much as the college coaches are, and they suffer for it. I could go on and talk about this in more detail for a very long time, but for now will leave it at that. 

But back to my original point, I just think it’s funny how people are so sold on Vince Young, who statistically was yet again one of the worst quarterbacks in all of football, that they fire the coordinator rather than consider a quarterback that can actually throw the ball.  Here’s the solution if you’re Tennessee. If you want to run a traditional NFL offense, bench Young now. There’s no point in trying to make him something he’s not. If you believe in him, then do what colleges do, and tailor your offense around his strengths, and, most importantly, tell him to run the ball 15 times a game. It’s that simple. Not only is he a good runner who will gain yards, but the linebackers (and even safeties) will be focusing on his running more and it will open up the passing game. You have to try a risky (by NFL standards) scheme though if you’re going to go with VY as your QB.  Of course this won’t happen though. Fisher will hire some new coordinator who will swear he can develop Young into a bona fide NFL passer, and after a while, his schemes (that will no doubt be almost identical to Norm Chow’s) won’t be producing any great results, and the cycle will continue.  

By the way, most people’s objection to the idea of letting Young (or any mobile quarterback) run 10-15 times a game is that they can’t take the pounding of being hit that many times. I think that is so ridiculous it deserves laughter in the face though. If running backs can handle 25 hits a game, then a good running quarterback, especially one as big and strong and elusive as VY, can handle 15 hits a game. You will never convince me otherwise on this. Besides, if that’s the way for the quarterback to be successful, don’t you have to try it? What’s the point of harnessing a player’s only advantage because you’re afraid using that advantage might lead to an injury, when the alternative is to keep him safe by telling him to not use the skills that got him there in the first place? It’s insane.

The overdue bowl update and MORE!

So I had planned on doing a big bowl update that covered the last few bowls, but then I let so much time pass that I lost my motivations. So this will be short.

-Apparently West Virginia WAS for real. (Great insight, huh? That’s why I have a blog.)

-The SEC is amazing, and for the second year in a row, showed that there’s a big gap between them and the Big 10.  To me, the fact that the SEC is so tough makes it completely ok that our national champ had 2 losses. I still think they were the best team. Undefeated seasons, as great as they are, will be less and less frequent for BCS schools. I think crazy seasons like this one will become more the rule than the exception as the playing field continues to level in college football.

-Glad to see Jamaal Charles go pro so he can follow in the long line of Longhorn running backs being massive disappointments in the NFL. Har! Who knows, he may be good, there’s really no way to predict it unless you are Adrian Peterson. Glad he’s gone though. Now it’s on to a new overhyped, overrated running back from Texas for the media to fall in love with after he runs for 150 yards against Rice.

-That’s it for now, I’m planning on writing about the NFL later this week, and once the season is over, a long and authoritative essay that proves without a shadow of a doubt that a playoff for college football would be a TERRIBLE idea.

long overdue

i realized i havent posted in a while. kudos to threeyardout for keeping hope alive.

two quick things:

1) Ryan Mallett has to sit out a year. That sucks. Especially since he didnt do anything. it’s not his fault that michigan went a different direction, that rodriguez is going to institute a spread. yes, it might be his fault that he’s a big slow white guy, but still. it sucks that he has to sit out a year, but rodriguez doesnt. why should mallet be penalized?

 2) i read something today that called jim tressel of ohio state no different than john cooper of ohio state…except tressel got a pass interference call leading to the national championship in 2002. that’s ridiculous. absolutely ridiculous. you’re talking about a guy who has taken you to three national championship games in 7 years.  he’s 73-15 over his career, and has finished in the top 5 5 out out of the 7 year’s he’s been there. John Cooper couldnt beat michigan. Cooper choked away seasons. Cooper sniffed a national title only two of the fourteen some odd years he was there.

It just frustrates me when fans have a sense of entitlement…an unrealistic sense of entitlement. I would kill for A&M to have Ohio State’s level of success over the past 10 years. I’d say that they are only behind USC and LSU as far as dominance over the past decade, and even that’s debatable.  How are they going to criticize Tressel? Who out there is better?

I also heard someone compare them to the Buffalo Bills, like that’s an insult. Sure it sucks to have lost four in a row like Buffalo did….but they made it to the top four years straight…that’s damn impressive and something that 27 out of the 29 (i think) NFL football teams could say they did. Same thing with ohio state. sure they lost two in a row…but they made it to the freakin national championship game two years in a row. that’s outstanding.

entitlement sucks. i want to kick entitlement’s butt.

Mid-point bowl update

A funny thing I saw while flipping channels during the bowl games: I stopped momentarily on some Cops-style show, and the cop had pulled over a couple and found drugs in their car. He found some crack and some crystal meth. He was doing the whole cocky cop thing, questioning them just for the fun of it, and finally the poor little girl, seeming quite exasperated, said “well what was I supposed to do?” To which the cop slowly replies, with a straight face, “You’re supposed to not smoke crack.” It was funny, trust me.

Now, for the bowl update. First, the Alamo Bowl.

Surprisingly, I don’t have too much to say on this one. Nothing surprising about the outcome. A close game, could have gone either way, but on the crucial 4 ^th and 1, A&M couldn’t get it done. Speaking as a tortured fan, I suppose that’s typical of the Ags in my lifetime. My issue with that play was not the fact that A&M ran the option. I’m ok with that. What I’m not ok with is leaving Lane on the bench for that play. Clearly, the Aggies were thinking that the defense would expect the run up the middle, so instead, they would run outside. But Lane is the guy that is the threat up the middle. With him out, the defense knew the Aggies were running outside, and it was stuffed. You have to at least have Lane in as a decoy. I thought this lesson was learned for coaches everywhere when USC left Reggie Bush on the bench for their crucial 4 ^th down play against Texas. Sure enough, the Longhorns stuffed the middle, knowing that LenDale White was headed there, stopped the Trojans, and it cost USC a national championship in the process. Note to all coaches: on the most important play of the game, make sure you put your best players on the field. Sounds simple, but apparently it’s not.

I think one of the biggest disappointments for me was the offensive play-calling as a whole. After seeing the new wide-open attack against Texas, and the rumors that that game was called completely by offensive coordinator Les Koening (without Fran ever overriding any plays), it seemed that we would see more of that against Penn State. We all thought that since big bad conservative Fran wasn’t there to hamper Koening’s genius, it would be dynamic and exciting. But it was not so. It seemed that A&M spent their entire bowl preparation working on a couple gimmick formations, one of which worked a couple times but then didn’t anymore, and the other of which was only tried once, and didn’t really work anyway. The rest of the game was exactly what we’ve seen all season. Lack of rhythm, imagination, and feel for the game lack of ANY production by the wide receivers, stupid mistakes by the players at critical times, and an inability to protect McGee when we absolutely had to protect him. And that’s just on offense.

Defensively, A&M still can’t stop a 3^rd down, and with their horrible 4-2-5 that only puts 6 and sometimes 7 (but with the 7 ^th being a smaller player) in the box, can’t stop the run, even when we are 100% sure the opponent will run the ball. It’s sickening. I think Darnell is a good guy, but he is not a good defensive coach. I said at the beginning of the season that all of the supposed improvement A&M made on defense in ‘06 was a complete illusion, that really the schedule just pitted the Ags against the worst collective group of offenses you could have ever asked for, along with an A&M offense that controlled the clock for 35 minutes a game, meaning we only had to defend for 25, along with the new clock rules that shortened games and helped defenses. I said that our defense would be right back to the 80’s or 90’s for total ranking. Not to toot my own horn, but uh, toot toot. I was right. Unfortunately. The good news is, all those coaches are gone, and we get a fresh start. There will be bumps along the way (there always are with coaching changes… see: Louisville 2007), but there will be new hope. I’m already ready for the ‘08 season.

Now to comment on a few other things:

Gator Bowl- I was surprised Tech played so bad actually. I thought they’d win easily and score over 40 points. They played pretty bad. But give them credit, they made 4 or 5 HUGE plays down the stretch, and that was the difference. Got outplayed for 55 minutes, but dominated 5 minutes and won the game. Football is cool like that. As an Aggie, I’m not allowed to say what I’m about to say, but I think Tech is a team to watch next year…. NATIONALLY. I know, I know, Tech will never win more than 8 games, according to prevailing logic, but in all honesty, they have it set up pretty well for next year. The two teams from the North, Mizzou and Colorado, who gave Tech fits each of the last 2 years, are off the schedule. Tech has proven they can beat OU. They consistently abuse A&M. They always stay close with Texas (although they usually lose, lately), and they do get the Longhorns in Lubbock next year. And to top it all off, they return EVERYBODY. Seriously, they only lose like 3 guys off of their entire two-deep, and they’ll have a 3 year starter at quarterback, the best receiver in the country, and a defense that wasn’t good in ‘07, but will certainly be better in ‘08. And hey, it was good enough to win 9 games this year. I think Tech will win at least 10 and could possibly pull a Mizzou-style 12-win season out of their hat in ‘08. I haven’t looked at their non-conference schedule yet, but it can’t be too hard. Pretty disgusting, huh?

Rose Bowl- I still don’t think USC is as good as some people seem to think they are (I’ve heard more than one analyst say they are the best team in the nation), but they clearly were on another level from Illinois. And that really isn’t a surprise. They have been a recruiting machine for years now, picking up elite athletes from all over California, while Illinois just picked up their recruiting in the last couple years with Ron Zook. Zook is obviously a heck of a recruiter, considering he also left Florida with talent enough to win a championship. He will likely keep Illinois on the upswing, but in reality, they shouldn’t have been in the Rose Bowl yet. They’re ahead of schedule, which is good, but it’s also a reality check to then jump in to that level before your program really belongs there. Congrats to them for making it though, and even bigger congrats to USC for having their 7 ^th straight 11-win season. That is ridiculous. They are putting together a “Florida St. circa the entire decade of the ’90s” type of run, and actually probably exceeding what FSU did.

Cotton Bowl- Mizzou was for REAL. They embarrassed Arkansas and didn’t even have to use their passing game, which is their strength. They shut down Arkansas’ offense, dominated all around, and got the breaks they needed to keep the large margin. Looking back now, only one team beat Mizzou (OU), and that one team could, with a victory tonight, end up being a top 3 team when it’s all said and done. Therefore, you can realistically say Missourri was clearly a top 10, and arguably top 5 team in the nation this year. Insane.

Sugar Bowl: OK, I think most football fans saw this one coming. Hawaii, like Illinois, did not belong on the same field with Georgia. I think it was obvious to most everyone going in that they don’t have the athletes to compete at the major conference level. The whole 12-0 thing was a farce. When they have to defend big time athletes, they proved to be totally incapable, and when they had to try to move the ball with their all-pass all the time offense against real, athletic defenders, they couldn’t get anything going. I wish this would cause the “every team deserves a chance at the national championship” crowd to shut up, but I’m sure it won’t. I would go on a lengthy “we don’t need a playoff in college football!” rant, but I’ll save that for after the bowls. Anyway, I’m all for still inviting one crappy 12-0 team from a minor conference into the BCS each year, for no other reason than how much fun it is to see them get clobbered, thus reminding everyone that not all conferences are created equally.

I’ll comment on the Florida-Michigan game later. Also, Jamaal Charles leaving Texas early for the NFL, and some NFL playoffs (and Patriots) talk. Happy New Year!

An early bowl season update

OK, the bowl season is well underway, and surprisingly, I have only watched two of the games. Here are my thoughts.

 -Central Michigan vs. Purdue: Keep in mind, this was the first time I had seen either team play. I realize that one game does not necessarily make for fully informed opinions (the word “opinions” always looks like “onions” to me). That being said, it seemed to me that Purdue was so much better than Central Michigan, it was baffling to figure out how this game came down to a last minute field goal. Considering Purdue had passed for 400 yards with 27 minutes still to play, it seemed like they’d run away with this game.

However, never underestimate the ability of token “scrappy white quarterback who is inexplicably able to run very well” to make things interesting. Central Michigan’s QB Dan LeFevour was like a poor man’s Stephen McGee, and had a horrible arm (despite putting up like 3600 passing yards this year), yet the guy produces. Further examination shows that he had, on statistics alone, arguably one of the 5 best seasons by a quarterback in the history of college football. He’s the only player besides Vince Young to rush for 1,000 yards and pass for 3,000 in the same season, and he was one rushing touchdown short of becoming, in the same season, only the second player ever (along with Heisman winner Tim Tebow) to throw and run for 20 touchdowns each in the same year. Insane. Yet when you watch him, he seems kinda lame. Shows how much I know, I guess.

Regardless, Purdue’s offense didn’t belong on the same field as Central Michigan’s defense, and I think they were clearly a better team.

-Arizona St. vs. Texas: This game, as a Texas hater, drove me crazy. Texas is NOT a very good team. They went all season without beating any teams in the top 40, their biggest quality win was over a 7-5 TCU team (at home, and they trailed 10-0 at halftime), and they could barely even beat Arkansas State and Nebraska. Yet of course, they are hailed as a great team, because they are Texas.

It helped them they got to play one of the worst 10-2 teams I think I’ve ever seen. How ASU won 10 games with that quarterback, I’ll never know. He was TERRIBLE. I have never seen a quarterback at a major, successful program have such a weak arm. He couldn’t even throw a 20 yard pass without putting a serious arc under it.

 Even so, Texas struggled to win. It took something like 6 turnovers by ASU for the Longhorns to really succeed here, and don’t give me the whole “give them credit, they FORCED those turnovers” routine. 3 of them were pure luck. The two tipped interceptions and the fumbled punt, and then throw in the fact that Cart McCoy (yeah, that’s right, I called him Cart. He’s a woman.) fumbled into the end zone and despite ASU being the first team to recover that ball, they didn’t end up with it after the requisite dogpile, so Texas got a cheap touchdown there.

And don’t even get me started on the fact that the final onside kick wasn’t even reviewed. That was VERY questionable. And it totally deflated ASU, who then promptly gave up an easy touchdown to Jamal Charles (another overrated Longhorn). Charles had played decent, but that little gift helped his number look downright great. It all feeds into the pervasive misconception that Texas is great and all of their players are too. Sickening.

Texas is easily one of the worst BCS-conference 10 win teams I’ve ever seen. I don’t think there’s another team in the top 25 that they’d beat if they played tomorrow. I’ve said all season long and still say that this year, they were a 7 win team. They lucked into a 10 win record, but they were a 7 win team. I think that, unfortunately, the fact that they weathered their down year to still win 10 games will bode very well for them, allowing them to avoid a letdown over the next few years that very could have happened with a 7 win season.

Anyway, the Aggies are starting so I will post more later. My unresearched prediction: Texas A&M: 27, Penn St.: 24