The Petrino Scandal

Bobby Petrino isn’t exactly showing himself to be a great role model in our modern era.  People are able to dig up dirt and figure out more about players and coaches now, then ever before.  Petrino had been a good FBS coach at Louisville when he took a NFL Head Coaching position with the Atlanta Falcons.  The Falcons hired him in 2007 and later that year is when the Michael Vick dog scandal broke out.  So, Petrino decided to leave the Falcons with 3 games left in the season and the best player on the team in prison by leaving a note on each of the player’s lockers telling them that he was taking the head coaching job at Arkansas.

Now, when Arkansas sees that he isn’t keeping his word by keeping up the moral standards of the university, as it states in his contract, they fired him.  Due to an affair and attempted cover-up, the school released him yesterday.  Now, it is my personal opinion that no one should ever let Petrino coach again and if they do they shouldn’t be surprised if he either cheats the system or goes for a better opportunity at a moments notice.  The toughest thing about all of this is, I think that Petrino really knows his football.  He has gone 75-26 at the college level, a 74% winning percentage, and 3-10 in the NFL games that he coached, 23% winning.  He has only had one season in college with a losing record, but all of these numbers should be thrown out the window, because you simply cannot know what Petrino might do next, and you don’t want 85 18-22 year old’s learning anything from him.

2011 College Football Playoff

This is a recap from my earlier playoff post when I had announced how I would lay out a 16 team playoff.  This would be the matchups.  How it would all work.  The nitty gritty.  Now I know many people think that we should go to a plus 1 system or a 4 or 6 team playoff, but I’m only trying to be fair here and if there is going to be any change, then let’s get it right and make a large change since the current BCS system is horrible.  LSU & Alabama may very well be the top 2 teams, but there certainly is a debate revolving around whether or not Oklahoma State should have been involved.  Anyway, let’s get to the first round matchups.  Now any team that would get eliminated in the first two rounds could go to a regular bowl just like the normally would, if they advance to the semi-finals then they would not have a regular bowl game.  These games would be played on Saturday, December 10th

1.  LSU vs. 16. Louisiana Tech (Tiger Stadium)
8.  Kansas State vs. 9.  Wisconsin (Bill Snyder Family Stadium)
4.  Stanford vs. 13.  West Virginia (Stanford Stadium)
5.  Oregon vs. 12.  Southern Miss (Autzen Stadium)
6.  Arkansas vs. 11. TCU (Donald W. Reynolds Razorbacks Stadium)
3.  Oklahoma State vs. 14.  Arkansas State (Boone Pickens Stadium)
7.  Boise State vs. 10.  Clemson (Bronco Stadium)
2.  Alabama vs.  15.  Northern Illinois (Bryant-Denny Stadium)

These would be your first round matchups.  Lots of good games.  More teams get in and more regular season and conference champions matter.  Obviously you get a weaker opponent if you are one of the top teams, and each of the top 8 teams get to host another game which would be a huge advantage and a great money making opportunity.  This is how I would picture the matchups going into round 2, with some neutral sites now getting involved that do not host bowl games.  In an attempt to be fair, the highest seeds get to play closest to home.  The following games would be played on Saturday, December 17th.

1. LSU vs. 9. Wisconsin (M & T Bank Stadium, Baltimore, MD)
4. Stanford vs. 5. Oregon (Overstock.com Coliseum, Oakland, CA)
3. Oklahoma State vs. 6. Arkansas ( Arrowhead Stadium , Kansas City, MO)
2. Alabama vs. 10. Clemson (Edward Jones Dome, St. Louis, MO)

We would have a rematch here, but there would be no arguing that the games played would be great.  Plus so many NFL stadiums would be able to host, some others that could be available but would not make sense this season are Lambeau Field (Green Bay, WI), Soldier Field (Chicago, IL), Gilette Stadium (Foxboro, MA), Invesco Field at Mile High (Denver, CO) .  There are several others, but this is at least 8 to name a few.  I would then take the playoff to domed stadiums, many of which are bowl sites and could still be considered a bowl game a bowl site accepted a spot in the playoff committee.  The following games would be played on Saturday, December 31st.

1. LSU vs. 5. Oregon (Georgia Dome, Atlanta, GA)
2. Alabama vs. 3. Oklahoma State (Cowboy Stadium, Dallas, TX)

The National Championship would still be played at the Superdome in Louisiana this year and we could still rotate it around to the four stadiums it currently is rotated through.  (Rose Bowl, Orange Bowl, Sugar Bowl, Fiesta Bowl)  Great games to be certain, and similar to the plus one playoff idea, but anything could have been changed during the other games, these are just the teams that I have advancing in the playoff.  The following game would be the National Championship, and it would be played on Saturday, January 7th.

1. LSU vs. 3. Oklahoma State

Personally, I think that no one could come close to LSU this season and they are the team that I think would take the National Championship in this scenario.  I don’t know if the playoff would be the most important or necessary system this year, but would have been really helpful in prior years such as 2000 when Florida State, Miami, and Washington were all 10-1.  2003 had USC, LSU, and Oklahoma all as one loss teams with USC being left out of the championship.  2004 had Auburn, USC, Oklahoma, & Utah all finish the season undefeated.  2006 when Florida, Michigan, & Louisville had one loss and Ohio State & Boise State were undefeated.  2007 had LSU win the BCS title game when they had 2 losses, and several one loss teams were left out of the title game.  2008 had Florida and Oklahoma with both teams only having one loss and Utah was undefeated, Texas, Alabama, Penn State, and USC all were one loss teams as well.  2 years ago Boise State, TCU, and Cincinnati were left out despite being undefeated to Alabama and Texas.  Last year TCU finished undefeated and was left out because Auburn and Oregon were undefeated.  BCS let’s get it right, we need to go to a fair playoff system and this would be simply one great way to accomplish this.

Denver Magic: Tim Tebow or What?

It’s tough to think about exactly what the Denver Broncos have been doing since they switched to start Tim Tebow as their QB in week 7.  Tim Tebow is getting praised for being a “winning” quarterback because the media simply doesn’t have anything else that they can praise him for.  He is a great option running quarterback and is potentially developing as a passer.  I really don’t think he is the worst passer in the league and would potentially rather have him than several other quarterbacks in the league.  But it is tough to explain exactly how the Broncos are winning games. Let’s take a look at his stats in these games.

Week 7 W 18-15 @Dolphins
Passing- 13/27 161 yards 2 TD 0 INT
Running- 9 Carries 59 yards

Week 8 L 10-45 vs. Lions
Passing-18/39 172 yards 1 TD 1 INT
Running-10 Carries 62 yards

Week 9 W 38-24 @ Raiders
Passing-10/21 124 yards 2 TD
Running-13 Carries 118 yards

Week 10 W 17-10 @ Chiefs
Passing-2/8 63 yards 1 TD
Running-9 Carries 43 yards 1 TD

Week 11 W 17-13 vs. Jets
Passing- 9/20 104 yards
Running-8 Carries 64 yards 1 TD

Week 12 W 16-13 @ Chargers
Passing- 9/18 143 yards 1 TD
Running- 22 Carries 67 yards

Week 13 W 35-32 @ Vikings
Passing- 10/15 202 yards 2 TD
Running- 4 carries 13 yards

As with any game, one of the keys to winning is winning the turnover battle.  Tim Tebow from what I can tell has simply been playing mistake free football as compared to what Kyle Orton had been doing when he was the quarterback for the Broncos.  Also, there has been a major improvement by the defense as well.  The Broncos defense had not scored at all in the first 5 games.  They also had given up a total of 135 points, which averages out to 27 points per game.  Kyle Orton had also thrown 6 INT in the first 5 games, which to be completely honest, isn’t really that poor.  Tim Tebow’s first game was after the bye week, which most NFL teams thrive on, and they were able to beat the Dolphins in OT thanks to Prater being able to kick a 52 yard field goal.  Prater has been incredibly clutch during Tim Tebow’s winning streak, hitting game winners in 3 of the 6 wins.  Plus the defense only gave up 15 points, which is much less than their average.

Tim’s only loss was to the Lions, it had his only INT, which was returned 100 yards for a TD and the Lions had 2 defensive touchdowns and ran up the score for 45 points.

In week 9 against the Raiders, Carson Palmer had his first start in the NFL this season and had only been on the team for about 1o days.  The Broncos defense forced 3 turnovers and only gave up 24 points to the Raiders.  Eddie Royal returned a punt 85 yards for a touchdown for the first time this season.  Tim threw for 2 TD but Willis McGahee was the star of the game.

During week 10 against the Chiefs, the Broncos defense only gave up 10 points, their lowest amount allowed so far this season.  They also injured the Chiefs starting QB (Matt Cassel) during the game and the Chiefs were forced to play a little known QB named Tyler Palko.

Then on the short week to the Jets on a Thursday game, the Broncos scored their first defensive touchdown of the season, picking off Mark Sanchez and returning it 26 yards for a touchdown (Goodman).  Again the defense only gave up 13 points and the offense only scored 10 points.  The defensive touchdown is the difference in this game.

Against the Chargers in week 12, the Broncos defense only gave up 13 points again.  Then they were fortunate that the Chargers kicker, Nick Novak, missed a game winning field goal in overtime and then Matt Prater was clutch enough to kick another game winner or the game would have likely ended in a tie.

Finally last week against the Vikings, the broncos scored another defensive touchdown and were able to kick a field goal at the end of the game because they intercepted Christian Ponder with under two minutes remaining to kick another field goal by Matt Prater to win the game.

The final verdict.  The Denver Broncos are playing better team football then they were before.  All of the players seem to be executing better and Tim Tebow has been an improvement over Kyle Orton, by playing virtually mistake free.  The defense is reducing points allowed to 21.7 points per game, dropping it by almost a touchdown and are forcing more turnovers.  Tim Tebow is playing the quarterback as a quality player in the NFL, but I don’t know if he is up to the hype that everyone is giving him.

FBS Playoff that works

There is a lot of argument that Alabama and LSU are the top two teams in the FBS this season.  But I have a solution that would be able to work so that even more games would truly matter in the hunt for the national championship.  The first requirement would be that we have automatic bids for teams that win their conference title.  We keep the BCS ranking system alive for the at large teams that would be added later.  Here is how the automatic bids line up right now.

ACC-(Virginia Tech/Clemson)
Big 12-(Oklahoma State/Oklahoma)
Big East-(Louisville?)
Big 10-(Michigan State/Wisconsin)
C-USA-(Houston/Southern Miss)
MAC-(Ohio/Northern Illinois)
MWC-(TCU)
Pac-12-(Oregon/UCLA)
SEC-(LSU/Georgia)
Sun Belt-(Arkansas State)
WAC-(Louisiana Tech)

All of a sudden these games have a tremendous impact with every team having a chance to get into the playoff by winning their conference.  However, this only would give us 11 teams so there would be 5 at large bids as well.  Those teams would be the top remaining 5 in the BCS Standings, regardless of conference.  As of the most recent BCS polls the teams that could be included are as follows:  Arkansas, Stanford, Boise State, Oklahoma, and Kansas State.  The seeding would be done in regards to the BCS standings as well.  That’s all for tonight friends.

Week 8 nfl picks

Wow, my picks were completely awful last week. I’m hoping to rebound with some new hope this week as my beloved packers take a week off and go undefeated into november.

TITANS over Colts
Saints over RAMS
GIANTS over Dolphins
PANTHERS over Vikings
RAVENS over Cardinals
TEXANS over Jaguars
BILLS over Redskins
Lions over BRONCOS
STEELERS over Patriots
49ERS over Browns
Cowboys over EAGLES
Chargers over CHIEFS

Congrats go to Stanford and Ohio State for pulling out some big victories last night. My huskers played better than I expected as well.

Week 7 picks

Seahawks over BROWNS
LIONS over Falcons
TITANS over Texans
Broncos over DOLPHINS
Chargers over JETS
Bears over BUCCANEERS
Redskins over PANTHERS
RAIDERS over Chiefs
Steelers over CARDINALS
COWBOYS over Rams
Packers over VIKINGS
SAINTS over Colts
Ravens over JAGUARS

That’s all folks

A Top 25 for the FBS and Week 6 Picks

It’s time for another edition of the Top 25 rankings as viewed by myself.  Since we have actually gone a few weeks into the season I will view some of the teams with a resume to the side similar to college basketball does for March Madness.  I just want to be clear about the decision making process.

1. LSU (W’s @ West Virginia, Oregon @ Dallas)
2. Alabama (W’s vs. Arkansas, @ Penn St.)
3. Oklahoma (W Texas @ Dallas)
4. Wisconsin (W vs. Nebraska)
5. Boise St. (W Georgia @ Atlanta)
6. Oklahoma State (W @ Texas A&M)
7. Stanford (W vs. UCLA)
8. Clemson (W @ Virginia Tech, vs. Auburn)
9. Oregon (L LSU, W vs. Cal)
10. Michigan (W vs. Notre Dame)
11. Georgia Tech (W vs. North Carolina)
12. Arkansas (L Alabama, W Texas A&M)
13. Illinois (W vs. Arizona St.)
14. Nebraska (L @ Wisconsin, W vs. Ohio St.)
15. West Virginia (L vs. LSU, W @ Maryland)
16. Kansas State (W vs. Baylor)
17. Virginia Tech (L vs. Clemson, W vs. Miami (FL))
18. Arizona State (L @ Illinois, W vs. USC)
19. South Carolina (L vs. Auburn, W vs. Georgia)
20. Texas (L Oklahoma @ Dallas, W vs. BYU)
21. Houston (W vs. UCLA)
22. Penn St. (L vs. Alabama, W vs. Iowa)
23. Michigan St. (L @Notre Dame, W @ Ohio St.)
24. Baylor (L @ Kansas St., W vs. TCU)
25. North Carolina (L @ Georgia Tech, W vs. Rutgers)

Now after an 8-5 week that I am not very proud of, it’s time for some new picks for week six with a little bit more time in advance.

FALCONS over Panthers
BENGALS over Colts
LIONS over 49ers
PACKERS over Rams
Bills over GIANTS
STEELERS over Jaguars
REDSKINS over Eagles
RAIDERS over Browns
RAVENS over Texans
PATRIOTS over Cowboys
Saints over BUCCANEERS
BEARS over Vikings
JETS over Dolphins

I realize that there is a lot of home paint in these picks, but it seems like they are the better teams as things line up this week.  Hopefully I can do better than 8-5 this week.  But it just seems like these games are easier pickings than they have been lately.

Week 5 picks

This will be short and sweet since I am posting via phone this morning. 45-19 through four weeks. Home teams in caps.,

BILLS over Eagles
COLTS over Chiefs
Cardinals over VIKINGS
GIANTS over Seahawks
Titans over STEELERS
Saints over PANTHERS
Bengals over JAGUARS
TEXANS over Raiders
49ERS over Buccaneers
Chargers over BRONCOS
PATRIOTS over Jets
Packers over FALCONS
LIONS over Bears

Week 4 Picks

Well, I am running late this week but I went 10-6 last week.  Another week of winning.  So far I am 4-0 on Monday Night Football and 2-1 on Sunday Night Football.  The prime-time games sure are exciting and I have definitely enjoyed getting them correct so far.  So we are going to keep it simple this week with just straight picks (with home teams in CAPS as always)

BEARS over Panthers
Bills over BENGALS
Titans over BROWNS
Lions over COWBOYS
Vikings over CHIEFS
Redskins over RAMS
EAGLES over 49ers
Saints over JAGUARS
TEXANS over Steelers
Giants over CARDINALS
Falcons over SEAHAWKS
PACKERS over Broncos
RAIDERS over Patriots
CHARGERS over Dolphins
RAVENS over Jets-Sunday Night
BUCCANEERS over Colts-Monday Night

If you have any questions regarding my picks just message me on twitter or leave a comment.  Enjoy the games everyone.

New Top 25

This week I am going to be getting some help on my top 25 from one of my good friends who is in from Wisconsin.  Andrew Schmidt.  He is a great sports fan and knows his stuff, and so I will accept his input but the rankings are still mine.  It looks like it might be time for some movers and shakers in the top 10 so let’s see where they fall.

1. LSU (W 47-21 @ West Virginia)
2. Alabama (W 38-14 vs. Arkansas)
3. Oklahoma (W 38-28 vs. Missouri)
4. Wisconsin (W 59-10 vs. South Dakota)
5. Boise St. (W 41-21 vs. Tulsa)
6. Stanford (Idle)
7. South Carolina (W 21-3 vs. Vanderbuilt)
8. Oklahoma State (W30-29 @ Texas A&M)
9. Virigina Tech (W 30-10 @ Marshall)
10. Nebraska (W 38-14 @ Wyoming)
11. Florida (W 48-10 @ Kentucky)
12. Oregon (W 56-31 @ Arizona)
13. Clemson (W 35-30 vs. Florida State)
14. South Florida (W 52-24 vs. UTEP)
15. Texas A&M (L 29-30 vs. Oklahoma State)
16. Baylor (W 56-31 vs. Rice)
17. Michigan (W 28-7 vs. San Diego State)
18. Georgia Tech (W 35-28 vs. North Carolina)
19. Arkansas (L 14-38 @ Alabama)
20. TCU (W 55-13 vs. Portland State)
21. Texas (Idle)
22. Illinois (W 23-20 vs. Western Michigan)
23. Arizona State (W 43-22 vs. USC)
24. West Virginia (L 21-47 vs. LSU)
25. Auburn (W 30-14 vs. Florida Atlantic)

This has been a difficult list to come up with for the last two weeks simply because it seems like there is a big drop off in exucution from 5-6,  12-13, 20-21.  Really it just seems strange to have a top 25 and maybe just finish it off with top 20.  Teams that have dropped out from the last week are Florida State and USC.  LSU and Alabama passsed Oklahoma this week since they have played higher ranked teams and LSU has beaten teams like West Virginia and Oregon who only have one loss and Oklahoma’s best win is against Florida State who now has 2 losses.  But I hope that you guys are enjoying reading these and have a great week.