Category Archives: College

College, Football, News

Crib Sheet: Dancin’ in the Cleats

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83190079JG011_NOTRE_DAME_V_

What’s wrong with a little celebration?  We here at the KCCGD like to shimmy and shake here after an especially tasty nacho dip or greasebuger.   So why is it so hard to let the college football players jump up and down?   Granted we don’t zebra striped dudes follow us to the Golden Tee table and inspect our reaction to making a great save putt.  But that’s where the problem is.  The referees are subjectively deciding whether or not the celebration might be offensive to him or the other team.  That seems just a bit too wacky.  There’s already enough pressure on the refs for actual blown calls.   Don’t let them blow it on stupid rules.

  • Looks like there’s a chance that LeGarrette Blount may be reinstated sometime this year.  He cold cocked a Boise State player during one of the first games of the year and was subsequently suspended for the rest of the season.  Similar infractions in different conferences only yielded a game or two suspension.   It looks like he’s taking the right steps to get back on the field.
  • Kansas University police will open up an investigation to the fight that took place between the football and basketball players.  The media hype around this is now big enough for some posturing by the law enforcement there.  So a hand will be slapped and money will be given under the table to keep this guys on the field.
  • Texas Tech’s Taylor Potts suffered a concussion last week and he may be out this Saturday for their game against the Kansas State Wildcats.  The stars may be aligned for the Wildcats as they are coming off their last second win against Iowa State and Farmageddon.  Good thing suspended offensive lineman Brandon Carter is back.  Hmm maybe that’s why Potts got banged up?
  • It looks like they nabbed the guy accused of filming ESPN’s Erin Andrews nude.  They dude’s an insurance salesmen and pretty well off.  Go figure.  The most surprise part of the article is that there are eight videos.  We thought there was just one.
  • ESPN’s Chris Low has an interesting piece about how Gene Chizik left football desolation at Iowa State for big powerhouse Auburn.   Guess what?  Chizik’s got the Tigers undefeated and #17 in the country, proving yet once again that bringing in talent helps more than just coaching up your kids.
  • Oklahoma Sooners’ Ryan Broyles is out four to six weeks with a broken shoulder.  Broyles is their leading wide receiver.  Oklahoma’s BCS chances are pretty much shot and least injuries will be a sufficient excuse.
  • The SEC admitted they blew the excessive celebration call against Georgia when they took the lead over LSU with about 1:05 to go in the game.  LSU came back and won.  Now Georgia should’ve stopped LSU, but their chances were seriously hurt with the penalty.  What’s up with refs deciding outcomes for more important teams?  Indiana’s screwjob at Michigan and now this?  It’s like the refs want the bigger names to win for the conference.  If Georgia won the game, would we see this much hype for LSU and Florida this weekend?  You know stuff like this makes me think twice about how clean these conferences really are.
  • Speaking of this week’s Florida vs LSU matchup, it seems the Gator players are getting threatening texts from LSU fans.  Ho boy, let the hype machine crank up to full power.  JK LOL!
College, Football, Picks

Pick It Standings Week 05: Feeling Overhyped

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song-chart-memes-striped-shirt

The non conference schedule is over and the Big 12 is limping out.   Oklahoma losing another close on to Miami capped off a 34-14 non conference schedule with one more game remaining.   The Arkansas rout of Texas A&M Saturday especially stung because it was from a SEC team.  So it looks as though that the Big 12 won’t end up being the 2nd strongest conference.  That can hurt Texas if they notch a loss and there’s no undefeated team in the conference.  Heaven forbid USC or even Ohio State sneaks into the national title game again.   One thing is for sure, the SEC is living up to the hype this year.  Now it’s time to figure out if we lived up to our Pick It hype:

Continue reading Pick It Standings Week 05: Feeling Overhyped →

College, Football, Iowa State, Kansas State, Live, Sports Bars, Waitresses

Scoreboards Sent Us Home Alive but Hurting

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We did our best to avoid the blast impact of Farmegeddon 2009 and with your help we landed in the bunker that is Scoreboards Bar vs Grille. Scoreboards tucked us away very quietly while we watched the action exploding on the screens. In times of catastrophe, one can’t be concerned of amenities. They must be concerned for survival. Well, we survived Scoreboards. From patching together tvs, to working with outdated accommodations, we walked out of disaster with no scratches and sore backs. Hey at least the food exceeded our expectations of canned beans and cracker jacks.

Continue reading Scoreboards Sent Us Home Alive but Hurting →

College, Football, GameDay

GameDay: FARMAGEDDON HAS COME!

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farmageddon2009

So the only real big game hyped up in the area this week is Kansas State taking on Iowa State at Arrowhead Stadium.  The other local teams are on break and getting ready for conference play next week.  This is a great opportunity for these two teams to showcase themselves (on a national spotlight even).  Both programs are suffering a bit right now.  Both of them will be run centric and defense heavy.  Both have new coaches (albeit one is returning).   Both teams were projected to be in the cellar of the Big 12 North this year.   Well it may not mean much for everyone else, but it means the whole season for these two team.

For Iowa State, they’ve always been in the shadow of Iowa for years.  Sure, there’s been times when the Cyclones were up and the Hawkeyes were down.  But last year and especially this year, Iowa State is taking a back seat.  They axed coach McCarthy last year and ended up with what looks like a trade with Auburn.  McCarthy went on the head coach the Tigers where Iowa State got defensive coordinator Paul Rhodes.  It’s a new regime for the Cyclones and expectations are that this guy will be instilling defense into a league that forgot how to spell it.

Meanwhile, Manhattan’s favorite son has returned in the form of Bill Snyder 2.0 to build back the program that was once a national title contender.  After the embarrassing skid mark that was Ron Prince, Snyder 2.0 is back to bring street cred back to the Wildcats.  And he’s doing it in the same way that Rhodes is trying to do up north.   Defense and a big ole running game is what was missing last year and Snyder 2.0 is hell bent on bringing it back.   Fortunately he has help in a JuCo transfer by the name of Daniel Thomas to help lead the way.

So today’s game is much more than deciding who will share the cellar with Colorado in the Big 12 North this year.  It’s a progress game.  The winner will have a better shot at making the most improvement this year.  The loser will have to eat it and plan on building for much longer.  Being the Kansas State grad that I am, I’m pulling for Snyder 2.0.  But I think the fact that I’m not going to Arrowhead shows just how close this game might be.  Let’s hope it’s not on ugly game on both sides of the field.  Now off to the bunker.  IT’S FARMADGEDDON!

College, Football, Picks

Pick It and Stick It: It’s Getting Hard

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nose-picking

Well hard and cold.  Hard because the teams are starting to even out and we are actually seeing tougher calls for the spread.  On top of that, the confidence points don’t work out too well anymore.  There won’t be hardly anymore Off bets to drop the big points on.  Cold because of the weather.  It’s getting nippy out folks.   Bundle up and bring the Irish coffee.

Favorite VS Underdog Final Status (times in CDT)
(20)BYU VS Utah St. 24 Fri, Oct 2 at 8:00 pm
(6)Virginia Tech @ Duke 17 Sat, Oct 3 at 11:00 am
(13)Iowa VS Arkansas St. 21 Sat, Oct 3 at 11:00 am
Michigan St. VS (22)Michigan 3 Sat, Oct 3 at 11:00 am
(3)Alabama @ Kentucky 15.5 Sat, Oct 3 at 11:21 am
(10)Cincinnati @ Miami (OH) 29 Sat, Oct 3 at 12:00 pm
(15)Penn St. @ Illinois 7 Sat, Oct 3 at 2:30 pm
(18)Georgia VS (4)LSU 3 Sat, Oct 3 at 2:30 pm
(9)Ohio St. @ Indiana 18 Sat, Oct 3 at 6:00 pm
(21)Mississippi @ Vanderbilt 9.5 Sat, Oct 3 at 6:00 pm
(25)Georgia Tech @ Mississippi St. 6 Sat, Oct 3 at 6:30 pm
(8)Oklahoma @ (17)Miami (FL) 7.5 Sat, Oct 3 at 7:00 pm
(7)USC @ (24)California 5 Sat, Oct 3 at 7:00 pm
(11)TCU VS SMU 28 Sat, Oct 3 at 7:00 pm
(5)Boise St. VS UC Davis Off (0) Sat, Oct 3 at 7:00 pm
(12)Houston @ UTEP 15 Sat, Oct 3 at 8:00 pm
(16)Oregon VS Washington St. 33.5 Sat, Oct 3 at 8:15 pm

Okay so the only Off just happens to be Boise State.  The BCS Bronco Busting Broncos  are riding there way to a somewhat cake conference schedule.  Will they make it?  UC Davis will help.  Cincinnati is supposed to roll Miami of Ohio even though it’s a rivalry game.  The other Miami is hosting Landry Jones and Oklahoma.  Looks like the loss to Virginia Tech was enough to put the Sooners out ahead on the spread.  Georgia and LSU have the smallest spread because, well, it’s the SEC and it’s Defense.  Did you see LSU last week?  Yeah it will be close.  The other close game will be the Paul Bunyan Trophy contest that pits Michigan against Michigan State.  Last week’s gift for the Wolverines is why the are favored 3.  It’s 3 points from the referees and the Big 10.

Barspotting, College, Football

Barspotting: Pointing to the Scoreboards

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scoreboards

This week finds us in the middle of Johnson County and at a neat little place called Scoreboards.  We’ve been there before the blog started off and we’re pretty sure it’s a good time.  There used to be a Scoreboards in Manhattan but we don’t think it’s the same bar.  Sometimes sports bars survive on their own without a website, but we think these guys could use one.  It was super hard to find a pic or logo of the place.  Maybe we can open up a KCCGD hosted space for bars around the area.   Or post some ideas for Scoreboards below and we’ll talk to the manager Saturday.

Continue reading Barspotting: Pointing to the Scoreboards →

College, Football, News

Crib Sheet: Icing It Down

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kneeinjuryicing_Full

Much of the staff for the KCCGD (all one person of it) is knocked down under injury this week.  Lower back pains are not an easy ailment to handle.  Granted it’s no puke inducing concussion, but we know how limiting an injury can be.  Usually a team would be lucky enough not to have any of their stars miss a game or two during the season.  Usually you rest them at halftime or have them skip the easy games.  In this BCS culture today though now you have to play your top guys all the time, even when hurt.  So in that spirit, we achingly bring this week’s Crib Sheet:

  • The College Football Hall of Fame is moving from South Bend to Atlanta.  The promised attendance was never met in Irish-land and now they are moving down to Bulldog country.  So let’s get this straight, they are moving from one program where expectations of a once great team were never met to another place where expectations of a once great team were never met?  Hey, at least they’ll avoid nasty winters.
  • Michigan University will no longer allow purses into the stadium for games.  Sorry, RichRod, you will have to find something else to carry all of your crying tissues.
  • The college football world gasped a big ole sigh when Tim Tebow went down with a concussion over the weekend against Kentucky.  Apparently he was aleady sick when he took a sick hit from a Kentucky player.  It’s a good thing Florida has the week off.  Not for Tebow to recover, but the for the rest of the sports media to talk about the games.  Hopefully.
  • Sports Illustrated is attempting to bring playoff brackets into the mainstream with a half-cocked bracketing system to rank the top 16 teams and then place them in a bracket.  Are they bummed that USA Today has the Top 25 Coaches’ Poll, the AP has their own poll, but they have nothing?  That’s what we think.  And this is the only ink we’ll give them.
  • Baylor’s hope for a rise to bowl-dom blew up in their face Saturday when Robert Griffin went down last Saturday with a torn ACL in his knee.  A veteran QB in Blake Szymanski will take over the helm as Baylor gets ready to head into conference play October 10.  It really sucks for the Bears but will make thing easier for the North teams playing Baylor this year.
  • Twitter rears its ugly head again as a couple of tweets from some Texas Tech players caused Mike Leech to ban it from the team.  This was, of course, in reaction to some awesome tweets from newly suspended offensive lineman Brandon Carter and linebacker Marlon Williams.  We miss it already.
  • Speaking of Twitter, Houston head coach Kevin Sumlin is using his handle to retrieve 3 helmets stolen from Cougars players while storming the field during Houston’s dramatic win over Texas Tech.  Twitter and Texas Tech just does not mix.
  • Stafon Johnson, tailback for USC, had emergency surgery on his throat after a freak weightlifting accident.  I’ve seen some bars fall with very heavy weight on them in the gym and it does not look pretty.  How did it get on this guy’s throat?  We hope he turns out okay.
  • New Mexico head coach Mike Locksley pulled a Buddy Ryan (or a Tom Caple) on his assistant and busted his lip.  We’ve seen some punches so far on the field at least once a week during the season, now we’re seeing it during coaches meetings.  Oh wait, football is a violent sport.  Check.
  • Kansas will have condominiums in the stands in the form of seat mortgages.  So while the kids are fighting on (and off) the field, the snooty rich people will be in the stands.  Live sport spectating is becoming the privilege of the elite.  This isn’t good at all.
  • Ladies and gentlemen, we present the Yankee Bowl.  The Big East #4 team and the Big 12 #7 team are signed up to meet at Yankee stadium beginning in the 2010-11 season.  Granted they still need approval, but if you have the mayor of New York and the owner of the Yankees behind it, the proposal should pass.  I for one wish that any ‘home’ team in New York gets beat.
  • Missouri gets the dunce cap this week as the athletic department sold a box of old cell phones.  Without wiping them.  Hey, hook me up with an email address or phone number over here.   I want some coaches to know about the blog.
College, Football, Picks

Pick It Standings Week 4: Discussions of Concussions

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song-chart-memes-school-nurse1

The world stood still and then moon and sun stopped spinning for just one moment as Tim Tebow was kneed in the head and carted off the field, vomiting into a pink bag.  Ever so slowly the planets began motion and we call took a breath as we watched the ambulance pull Superman away into the unknown.  The ticker told us what happened.  We were update hourly on his condition.  When it was all said and done, Florida quarterback Tim Tebow had a concussion.  Fortunately for our picks, it wasn’t as dramatic.

Continue reading Pick It Standings Week 4: Discussions of Concussions →

College, Football, Kansas, Live, Sports Bars, Texas, Texas Tech, Waitresses

J. Murphy’s Brings Out the Irish in Every One

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Western Europe meets the western Kansas City area as we trucked way the heck out to Shawnee to view Saturday’s selections at J. Murphy’s Irish Pub and Grille.  The games lined up for the afternoon seemed like a pot of gold at the end of the rainbow.  The traditional fare sprinkled the joint so well we were waiting for a Contra Dance to bust out.  And the food, well the food was all it was cracked up to be, Irish wise.  But there was so much more than really cheesy Irish references (which we will stop as of now) at J. Murphy’s.

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College, Football, GameDay

GameDay: BCS and Quick Return Programs

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Believe it or not, I’m a big supporter of the current BCS system.  Anymore I see major complaints coming from sports writers who lack the creativity to come up with something compelling.  Either that or they think they control college football like baseball writers.  At any rate, the major beef from them nowadays comes in the form of mid-conference teams not getting a fair shot.  You see Utah and Boise State lifted up high as a examples that the system doesn’t work.  I’m not so sure about that but there is something that’s happening this week that is making me take a second look.

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Barspotting, College, Football

Barspotting: J. Murphy’s Law

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jmurphys

So the voters spoke and we’re feeling Irish this week at J. Murphy’s.  It’s not March yet, but we have a feeling it’s going to end up like it by the time we get done here.  So let’s run down the stats on the bar.  Green decor. Check.  Beer (with Guinness).  Check.  Irish Whiskey. Check. Corned Beef and Cabbage. Check.  All football games. Check.  Looks like they meet the requirements for an Irish sports bar.  Come out with us Saturday to find out if the proof is in the Shepard’s Pie.  Erin go bragh!

When: Saturday, September 26, 2009
Time: 12:00 pm
Where: J. Murphy’s Irish Pub and Grill, 22730 Midland Dr, Shawnee, KS 913.825.3880


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Games:

Notes:  It’s a somewhat of a trap game for Missouri as they head to Nevada Friday night.  Kansas hopefully will turn their punches toward Southern Miss and not the basketball team when they host the Golden Eagles.  Virginia Tech plays another game of the week when they host newly resurgent Miami.  The Illibuck Trophy is up for grabs as Illinois heads to Ohio State and hope for an upset like last time.  Speaking of upsets, Iowa hopes to do the same thing this year to Penn State like they did last year and derail their national title hopes.  The Shillelagh Trophy is up for grabs when the Fighting Irish take on the Purdue Boilermakers.  Texas Tech takes a long road trip to Houston and look to duke it out against the newly christened cinderella Houston Cougars.  Finally New Mexico and New Mexico State meet for the 100th time this weekend in the Battle of I-25 and the Maloof Trophy.

Here’s the voting results from facebook:

barspottingweek04_2009

Bar Games, College, Food, Football, Live, Sports Bars, Waitresses

It’s not Atlanta, but We’re Doing the Dirty Birdie’s

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Some weeks, you don’t know what you’re going to run into when you pick a place you’ve never been to before.  So when we strolled up to Birdie’s Pub and Grill,  we weren’t expecting much.  They didn’t have a website and the only information we got about the place was on Google Maps.   Walking in, however, things turned completely different.  Yes, it was bigger, but for some aspects it wasn’t necessarily better.  The goal of the week was to watch some Nebraska vs Virginia Tech and head to a BBQ.  We accomplished the mission.  Here’s the report.

Continue reading It’s not Atlanta, but We’re Doing the Dirty Birdie’s →

College, Football, Picks

Pick It Standings Week 2: No Excuses

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fantasy-football

This week’s Pick It results are in and it looks as though some people forgot to set picks again. Including me. It’s a new system but what I missed was actually picking opponents on top of setting the confidence. So I was intrigued on the big rivalry game between Notre Dame and Michigan. “It’s just one game. Surely you didn’t get distracted off of one game, right?” You see, it’s more than just a rivalry. Jolly is a huge Michigan and subsequently a Big 10 fan. I used to hear lots of crap about Big 10 this and winningest program that. Being a Big 12 boy myself as well as a former catholic high school grad, it was necessary for me to take the opposite side this week and root for Notre Dame. I even bought a fitted cap to wear for the game. Well it didn’t pan out as I hoped and missing the picks this week only turns the knife deeper. It’s okay, though, everyone likes an underdog and the Purple Yeti just became one. Heck, it worked out for Rudy. Here’s the results:
Continue reading Pick It Standings Week 2: No Excuses →

Big 12, College, Football, Sports Bars

Johnny’s Tavern has the Power and the Light

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We were very skeptical when we strolled toward the Johnny’s Tavern setup on the corner of the Power & Light District in Downtown Kansas City.  We’ve been to a couple of places around there before and the experiences were weak.  We had some hope, however, as Johnny’s Tavern came through for us before.  After spending the afternoon there we can say it is the best bar in the district.  The food was great, the poker game was loads of fun, and the games on the screens were stellar.   If you own or work at a bar around that area, read on to see how to make it successful.

Continue reading Johnny’s Tavern has the Power and the Light →

College, Football, Miscellany

GameDay: Quick Thought About Rekindled Rivalries

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rivalries

Perusing the news feeds throughout the week, I couldn’t help but notice the over abundance of items talking about the renewed rivalry of Notre Dame and Michigan.   That rivalry is one built with years of contests and traditions.  But most of the articles talked about how it was renewed.  How?  They play each other every year.  Is this because Notre Dame is ranked and looking for a BCS run?  Usually the shoe is on the other foot with Michigan pushing through the Big 10 and gunning for BCS.   So why is it getting so much press this week?   It’s very simple.  Because college football needs this rivalry.

College football is what it is today because of schools playing each other every year for over 50 years.  The tradition of going against a familiar foe and claiming bragging rights for your school is why college football draws the bank that it does.  So when Notre Dame and Michigan suit up today for the 37th time, remember that they first played each other in 1887.  That’s about 122 years ago.  So when they trot on that field today, they carry on their shoulders a history of competition older than Brent Musberger.   This is the linchpin of college football.

Of course, we would be remiss to mention that there really isn’t any other big games going on this week.  Most rivarly games are played another week.  For the ranked teams, the only marquee match up is USC heading to the horse shoe and playing Ohio State.  So the pick of teams to talk about this week is pretty weak.  Especially because of the big games from last week.   There were Top 20 upsets and down to the wire games for BCS contenders last week.  This week seems pretty lame comparatively..

But college football needs these two teams.  We were lucky enough that it is quiet enough to hear about the Wolverines and the Fighting Irish.  For the Wolves, they need to get better fast.  The Big 10 needs them to be elite much more than college football.  Nowadays, people talk about how weak the Big 10 is.  Sure they have Ohio State and sometimes Penn State, but without Michigan and their tradition (the winningest team in history) people will always scoff at the Big 10 and turn their noses at them.  As for the Irish, it’s been years since they even mattered.  There’s no patience up in South Bend.  Just look at Ty Willingham.   So the vaunted Charlie Weiss led Notre Dame Fighting Irish need to manufacture a BCS trip or face falling back in mediocrity.  It’s been way too long for them.  They even set up a cupcake schedule because they know they’ll make it on name alone.

That’s where we are at today.  In a couple hours, the whole nation will watch an 18th ranked team travel to an unranked team’s home and play football.   Usually in a bigger week with tougher matchups, this game would be overlooked.  Usually teams with higher rankings would get the national rub and this one would be pushed to regional action.  But this is Notre Dame.  This is Michigan.  This is a history rich in competition.  This is college football.  We’re lucky enough to see it.