Battle of the Unbeatens

Well it's the battle of the unbeatens.  First of course we have the typical Big 12 teams with lack of schedule strength battling with Texas vs Iowa St and Baylor vs Kansas St.  Nebraska goes against Wisconsin for not only another great matchup of two top ten teams but the first time Nebraska will play in it's new conference.  On top of those four games we have up and coming Clemson on the road at Virginia Tech for Clemson's first road test to see if they are for real and Virginia Tech's first test the whole season as they haven't played an AQ BCS team yet.  And of course, we have the game that interests me the most with Alabama heading down to the Swamp to play Florida and Will Muschamp(yet again...).  What an exciting weekend. 


This is always when college football becomes the battle of who lost a better game first.  For instance, what if Florida beats Alabama, Alabama then goes on to win the rest of their games including the SEC championship, would they be a one loss team to go to the national championship over say an Oklahoma that loses to Texas later in the season??  People tell me that the BCS system works, but when push comes to shove, lose early because you will get more votes from coaches, the AP, and the mighty BCS system will throw the numbers in your favor.  Regardless of the BCS, this middle part of the season is when we finally see conference foes go after each other with win or go home mentalities and I LOVE it! You don't see this in pro football, you don't even see it in college basketball, and the only time you see it in baseball is when your team goes the whole year winning and then decides that bringing your bat to a game is a bad idea(thanks a lot Braves...).  This weekend is the type of weekend that reminds me why it is worth it to sit on my couch ALL day watching football.  Who am I kidding, every weekend is like that in college football, I am just excited that two TVs won't be enough!!

Another good week last week as I posted a 10-3 record!

South Florida vs Pitt-South Florida
Texas A&m vs Ark-Ark
Minn vs Mich-Mich
Northwestern vs Illinois-Northwestern
Miss St vs UGA-UGA
Kentucky vs LSU-Lsu
Nevada vs Boise St-Boise St
Auburn vs South Carolina-Auburn
Baylor vs Kansas St-Baylor
GT vs NC State-GT
Arizona vs USC-Arizona
Michigan St vs Ohio St-Ohio St
Clemson vs VT-Clemson
Texas vs Iowa St-Iowa St
Alabama vs Florida-UF
Nebraska vs Wisconsin-Wisconsin
UNC vs ECU-UNC

Traditions

With all the craziness that has been surrounding college football in the past year, I can't help but think about all the traditions that so many of us are accustomed to just vanishing.  A tradition like the Oklahoma/Nebraska game that even if they played it, the game would never mean as much as it did when they were in the same conference. A tradition that must be started between Colorado and Utah rather than the bitter rivalry of mascots between Ralphie from Colorado and Bevo from Texas.  As much as I don't really care about either of those teams, the tradition of both those animals was so fun to watch every year and now we only see it every now and then.  And to think, now Syracuse and Pitt will have to form new rivalries on the football field against foes such as Florida State and Wake Forest?  I think the thing that bothers me most in a conference like the Big East where they lose Syracuse and Pitt, it's not the football programs that take the hit of traditions, but it's basketball.  The passion of basketball in the Big East is one of the best and to see football cause those rivalries to mean less is just sad.  I guess it's hard to watch new rivalries attempting to be formed in football, old rivalries lost in football, and all the other sports having to deal with this just for money.

The irony of all of this is that for the past few years I have been complaining about the BCS system and how they will never go to the playoff system, one of their biggest arguments is the "tradition" of the bowl games.  I absolutely LOVE bowl season.  January 1st is like Christmas to me when football is on from 11am until midnight.  But I also realize that it IS UNFAIR to teams like Boise State who go undefeated even if their schedule is weaker that they don't even get a chance.  I can tell you coming from someone who played in a playoff system, it isn't always the best team all year that wins the tournament, it's the best team playing at that point in the season that wins.  It just annoys me that because of traditions and money, the BCS system won't change, yet all the conferences will realign and take away what little tradition was left in the eyes of the students and alumni of that particular school.

What I don't understand is that I come from a generation where we are constantly changing.  Social media is the best outlet for breaking news and the news feed on your home page is completely different 20 minutes later.  I come from a generation where tradition is something we frown upon because we think it keeps us from ever being innovators and creating a better country to live in; so we keep moving forward.  Mark Zuckerberg the founder of Facebook is from my generation.  Food trucks are run by 20 and 30 somethings and are the new rage for a restaurant because as soon as a neighborhood is "so five minutes ago," you just pack up and move to the next trendy place.  We don't like to stay in one place and I truly believe that my generation along with a few others will truly change the world(and that goes way beyond college football).  It's just interesting that we want to change college football to a playoff system to seem progressive, yet all this conference realignment just makes us cringe.  We see it all as a play on money and taking more steps backward rather than forward because the people who run these conferences just want the money.  It's plain and simple to me and my generation, yet everyone is afraid to talk about it(ironically probably because they get more money not to say anything...). 

I just love college football tradition.  That's why I love college football so much.  You play with an added passion for the sake of your school and the rivalry that has been formed for decades.  Alumni go back to school to look at pictures of them playing their arch rival while cheering on the new generation to beat the same school they played 45 years ago.  Where has that passion gone? Will it return? I sure hope so.  I can adjust, I don't particularly like to change, but I can.  I just hope college football(and all the other sports affected by this) will do the same.

OK, enough venting.  Hopefully I didn't overstep any boundaries ;)  I made up for the last time I picked with an 11-2 record.  Let's hope I keep that up!  It's gonna be a fun Saturday

UNC vs GT-UNC
ND at Pitt-ND
Ark vs Alabama-Bama
Ok State vs TAM-TAM
Florida St vs Clemson-Clemson(without EJ I just dont think FSU can do it, maybe he will play?)
Vandy vs S. Carolina-Vandy
UF vs UK-UF
Florida Atlantic vs Auburn-Auburn
Missouri vs Oklahoma-Oklahoma
LSU vs W.VA-LSU
USC vs Arizona St-Arizona St
UGA vs Ole Miss-UGA
San Diego St vs Mich-Mich

Early Season Guesses/Remarks

Now that we are two weeks into the season, it has been fun to listen to some of the critics go ahead and put their Heisman front runners out there.  Robert Griffin III from Baylor, Denard Robinson from Michigan, and Landry Jones of Oklahoma have been the players that I hear the most.  Well, what about Andrew Luck from Stanford and Trent Richardson from Alabama?  You could even put a Kellen Moore in there from Boise State which I am guessing most people will by the end of the season.  While I heard those three names I mentioned first be put in the Heisman frontrunner position so soon in the year, I thought I could make some outlandish and quick remarks that with only two weeks of judgement, I will allow myself to feel like a real critic. 

Now all of this is based JUST on the first two weeks of the season...just wanted to remind you of this...
-Mark Richt is fired
-Brian Kelly is fired
-Based on how Auburn won the national championship last year, Michigan will win the national championship this year
-Boise State will get locked out of the national championship again
-Florida State leaves the ACC
-Texas becomes this year's Ohio State
-The argument of whether the Big East should get an automatic bid will push more teams into super conferences
-Miami may not have a football program...
-It's LSU vs Oklahoma in the national championship game
-Robert Griffin III wins the Heisman and Baylor wins the Big 12 or whatever that conference is...
-Arkansas wins the SEC
-Arizona St wins the Pac 12
-Wisconsin wins the Big 10
-Florida State wins the ACC
-Notre Dame doesn't make a bowl
-West Virginia wins the Big East

So how close do you think this will be by the end of the season???

Now on to the picks...I was an abysmal 6-4 last week so I need to make up for that!

West Virginia vs Maryland-Maryland
Auburn vs Clemson-Auburn
Coastal Carolina vs UGA-UGA
Washington vs Nebraska-Nebraska
Michigan St vs Notre Dame-Notre Dame
Tennessee vs Florida-FLORIDA
Texas vs UCLA-Texas
Virginia vs UNC-UNC
Arizona St vs Illinois-Illinois
North Texas vs Alabama-Alabama
Ohio St vs Miami-Miami
Oklahoma vs Florida St-Oklahoma
Stanford vs Arizona-Stanford

Herschel

So last night I sat down to watch the new series on ESPNU called SEC: Storied.  It was on one of my favorite athletes and one of the greatest college football players of all time, Herschel Walker.  The man was and still is a beast.  Most of us know all about how when he was younger he would do around 5000 push ups and 5000 sit ups a day.  There have even been rumors that he lived on 12 snicker bars a day.  He still to this day does 1500-2500 push ups and sit ups a day and most recently ran a 4.39 40 yard dash as a 49 year old.  Can we say comeback??

What I didn't know, and I bet most people didn't realize this either, was that Herschel suffered from multiple personalities disorder.  When he was younger, he was bullied and he vowed it would never happen to him again.  As a sort of coping mechanism, he imagined himself becoming a sort of "superhero" type person.  When he was young, he figured it was a normal kid thing to do to imagine that you could one day be superman.  But when he grew up, he began to realize that becoming superman wasn't a fairy tale to him, but reality.  He was able to fuel his anger and aggression through football, but as soon as football was over for him, life became difficult as his anger became dangerous.

I have been thinking a lot about this as I have reflected on this amazing story of a man that overcame psychological issues to become such an gifted athlete.  I can only imagine that something like this was very difficult to deal with everyday.  So many athletes talk about how physically prepared they are because of all the hard work they put into practice, but what separates the good from the great is the mental toughness.  To hear about this unbelievable young athlete to succeed at such a high level with this disorder is nothing short than amazing.  It was really cool to watch Herschel reflect on his career and see how much more he enjoys his life now since he has gotten complete control of his psychological disorder.  I really admire a man like him to come forward and talk about it, but also to embrace his problems and make the most out of life.  It was also really nice to watch a Georgia team win and get to the national championship three straight years.  Where has that team been these past two decades??

Now on to picks!  I was 11-2 last week which is probably my best week ever! It's going to be another fun week

Missouri vs Ariz St- Missouri
Oregon St vs Wisc-Wisc
Miss St vs Auburn-sorry auburn...Miss St
Rutgers vs UNC-UNC!
Alabama vs Penn St- Bama(accidentally put penn st but I def DID NOT mean to)
South Carolina vs UGA-UGA! i beg you to win please!
Charleston South vs FSU-FSU
BYU vs Texas-upset special-BYU
UAB vs Florida-UF!
Notre Dame vs Michigan- Michigan

GAMEDAY!!

It is finally here.  A day I have been looking forward to since Auburn held up the National Championship trophy in January.  It's a brand new year.  It's a brand new season for my favorite teams and I must ask myself some questions before it all begins.  Will part of my season be over on Saturday night when Georgia faces Boise State? I always walk into a new season with high hopes that Georgia or Florida will make it at least to the SEC championship, much less the national championship and if UGA loses to Boise, part of my excitement will flicker.  Even with a #19 ranking, can they show that a lower ranked SEC team can still beat a team like Boise State or will BSU finally make some noise to the BCS analysts?  If they lose to BSU and the following week lose to South Carolina, will Mark Richt get fired mid season?  If they win one of these games does this mean he has saved his job one more year?  Do UGA fans still want him as coach? I know I do, but I haven't heard many good rumblings down in Athens....Is the freshman phenom running back, Isaiah Crowell, going to pull in numbers like Lattimore of South Carolina?

Will Muschamp and the Gators surprise people? Will Brantley finally get his due?  How different will UF look with Weiss, Brantley, and a genius defensive minded head coach? Will Gator nation like the change?  How soon will Urban pull a Spurrier and find a new team to coach?

Can Everett Withers pull the Heels together? Since we still have Butch's recruits, can we still win?  How good/bad will the ACC be this year?  Will the UNC students still come to the games since the last few years we all bought into the Butch Davis regime?  Will I look at the first date of basketball season before the third week?

And lastly...why is it every year the college football analysts pick a Big 12/ Pac 12/ Big 10 team to win the national championship while the SEC keeps on winning?  Is it because they are just tired of the SEC winning all the time or do they truly believe it? Oh and can the conferences please stay the same...if college football is all about tradition, i.e BCS/Bowl games, then why do we take away the tradition of the conferences and put teams in new ones?  I guess there isn't such a purity with tradition in college football after all. Maybe we should try a small playoff at the end of the year since tradition has just been thrown out the window.

Now it's time for me to start a brand new season of my picks.  Once again my dad beat me in our college football picks so I will try and do better.  So now it's time to grab my nachos, grab a seat in the middle of my couch, turn on Beth Mowins doing the defending national champions first game(with a Briarwood alum at QB!) and enjoy my day of sitting in front of the tv all day and only  getting up to cheer!

Thurs game:
Wisconsin vs UNLV-Wisc
Fri game:
TCU vs Baylor-upset special...Baylor
Sat games:
Akron vs OSU-OSU...but barely...
Utah St vs Auburn-Aub
Kent St vs Bama-Bama
South Florida vs ND-ND
Minn vs USC-USC
James Madison vs UNC-UNC!
Florida Atlantic vs Florida-FLORIDA!
Richmond vs Duke-Richmond
Oregon vs LSU-LSU
Boise St vs Georgia-GEORGIA!
Mon game:
Maryland vs Miami-Maryland

disclosure-i know i havent included all games but these seemed the most interesting to me...