I’ve been going back and forth trying to figure out which place to go for this week’s barspot. It’s not that big of a weekend in terms of college football as #1 and #2 isn’t playing. My team is however and it’s kind of a championship weekend for them. So what better place to watch the game than Champions! They are smack dab downtown and offer up a tight little joint for some football watching. I was actually there 2 years ago for SXSW and stopped by there for lunch during the conference. It was my first stop at a sports bar in Austin. So I’m bringing out all the stops for this weekend’s games.
Yes, we have not one, but two big upsets to deal with this week in Pick It and Stick It Standings. Unfortunately, there’s not real upsets with the picks, but with Oklahoma and Wisconsin losing there is a major reorganization in the BCS Standings. Things are starting to unravel quickly in the tightly wound Big 12 race now that Oklahoma lost. Unfortunately for me, that means that ESPN College GameDay won’t be in Manhattan when the Sooners take on the undefeated Kansas State Wildcats. That’s fine because I think they play better when they are under the radar. Much like me and my status for Pick It and Stick It. Let’s check out the standings.
It’s high time to duke it out on the field for dominance on the college football landscape. The unbeatens will dwindle down here real soon, if not this weekend, and it’s everyone team for themselves. Please remember, however, by fighting I mean actually playing tough football. I do not mean actually fighting the opposing players. It seems in the last couple of weeks some players have been confused and took to fisticuffs. Heck 41 players are suspended because of a big brawl that happened last weekend. Please, when you go out there fight well in terms of football, not Mortal Kombat. Now, it’s time to go over the Pick It and Stick It and look for some fatalities. Finish Him!
Finally, the week has come. That week I’m talking about is the BCS Standings Week 1. We’ve been hemming and hawing about who’s best and who’s overrated. Now we the dip stick to check the levels of college football awesomeness. There are some surprises and not so surprises in the fresh standings. But we’ll get to that later. We also have a new week of Pick It and Stick It Standings to go over. Will Keltron3000 hold the top spot or will some young up and comer take over and turn the league upside down. It’s too close to call so let’s check it out right now.
Here we go with another year of Pick It and Stick It! This time I decided to go easy on people and not do confidence points throughout the year. It was just too much beef to handle week in and week out. So I cut that fat off and leaned it down to a tasty point spread straight up pick league. You can drop two weeks so if want to join up please do so at:
Here we go on my annual predictions for the upcoming college football season. I peer into my crystal viking horn and blow out what I think will happen for the year 2011. From the BCS Championship Game to what color socks Oregon will wear in week 10, I throw it all on the board and see what makes triples and doubles. So what do I think will happen? Let’s find out:
Going big, the BCS Championship Game will be between Alabama and Oregon. Alabama’s avoided the NCAA cartel but Oregon hasn’t as much. I’m taking a risk on Oregon, but I don’t see any other team outside of the SEC that is title worthy. Sure there’s Oklahoma but man I’ve been burned by them before.
Texas A&M will leave the Big 12 to go the SEC. The SEC will poach and ACC, probably Florida State. The Big 12 stays in Texas and nabs either SMU or Houston.
Mike Leach will show up in a pirate outfit on Halloween. I’m not sure where, but it will be damn scary.
The NCAA hires enough people for them to actually do their job. This is a big guess.
The first ever Big 10 Championship Game will feature new member Nebraska and current NCAA crosshairs, Ohio State. Ohio State wins it and causes everyone to freak out.
Like I said before, Oregon will win the inaugural Pac 12 Championship Game against Arizona State.
Tyler Gabbert will not be a starting quarterback.
In my Big 12 preview, I picked Oklahoma to win the Big 12 but they will not be undefeated and will choke against somebody.
Super recruiter Willie Lyles will be paid even more money by selling recruiting tapes of a young breakout by the name of Hershel Walker.
I have no friggin’ clue who will win the Heisman this year. Probably LaMichael James, he was a finalist last year. Yeah, so was Andrew Luck but I’m picking the Ducks over the Trees this year.
Notre Dame gets on the winning track this year by displaying a tall video tower at the end of the opponents field for each home game. They may, by the grace of God, make a BCS bowl this year.
Penn State head coach Joe Paterno will NOT die on the field this. I’ve tried hard with this in the past but I need my prediction average to go up.
Kansas fans will start asking about basketball season after the 1st quarter of the first football game this year.
The Longhorn Network will not be successful to begin with. Texas finishing in the middle of the Big 12/10/9 will force ESPN to dump a bunch of infomercials on it. Hook ‘Em Horns Turbo Snakes anyone? There’s already Snuggies.
TCU will step on Boise State’s neck the only year they are together in the Mountain West Conference.
This whole mess with players not getting enough resources to go through college will stop. We’ll see at cost scholarships show up so the players can get a stipend to pay for laundry and lap dances.
One of the Brown brothers will do good, the other one will be mediocre for Kansas State. Still, the Wildcats make a bowl.
Craig James will still be a douche.
Erin Andrews will get bumped off the top sideline hottie list. At least there’s naked pictures of her online.
The Ivy League, after limiting collision practice and targeting head injuries, will be the first conference to go all flag football. No one will care.
And finally, I will get used to being in a different town. Kansas City was nice and Austin is turning out to be pretty cool. I also predict that I will not miss the snow but will miss the snow days.
It’s hard to believe we’ve made it through another off season. This one was especially spicy with all of the allegations of rule breaking many of the big time college football programs notched. Suspensions and forfeits will come, but it is time to get ready for the hot action on the field. What better way to prepare for it than by cooling off with some Shasta? No, not the flavorful soft drink but the last of the off season’s Mascot Monday and mascot for Phil Steele’s #21 team, the Houston Cougars, for his preseason 2011 poll. I ran out of time and did not get to do all of the list, but it just means I will have more critters to choose from.
The only other thing this week’s Crib Sheet needs is bacon. Grab some and check it out:
Notre Dame’s Dayne Crist played the rest of the first drive of the game against Michigan with blurred vision out of his right eye. It was just enough blurry vision to keep him out of the rest of the first half. It was a great game and we wonder what the score would be like if he was healthy for the whole game.
Much like Wrigley Field of baseball, the Big House will get permanent lights for night games. Will we ever see the docket of Big 10 games go well into the night? Since the Big 10 Network is around you can bet on the conference trying to expand all of its games throughout the day and weekends.
Speaking of stadiums, the Richmond Spiders will actually get to play a home game in their own stadium for the first time in 82 years. It seems the city owned the place they were playing at and it wasn’t even on campus. This should help Richmod realize its full potential and become a powerhouse in football for years to come.
We see some players go from college football to major league baseball but it’s rare when the other way happens. Welp it happened with Nick Doscher. He’s playing at quarterback for Wagner College after a stint as catcher in the farm system for the Kansas City Royals. This guy must be able to manage the game because of his catcher status. If he was a pitcher we would guess he would throw all over the place in a passing attack.
Phil Fulmer put the full frontal audible attack on Lane Kiffin last week. He used to be Tennessee head coach before Kiffin came on. He’s wondering how Kiffin uses his mojo to get the cush coaching jobs. It’s a good thing he used his smack talk on his now current CBS analyst gig. Let the media war begin.
The Chick-fil-A Kickoff will now have two games starting in 2012. We already knew that Tennessee will take on N.C. State but now Auburn will take on Clemson, too. All this does is make me more hungry for Chick-fil-A sandwiches.
Here’s a lesson: When you talk with an ESPN reporter, more than likely you will be on record. Washington head coach Steve Sarkisian learned the hard way when he talked about Reggie Bush and not apologizing for the Heisman/eligibility problem. Serves Sarkisian right. He was an offensive coordinator during this debacle and he should get some negative rub it too.
Michigan State head coach Mark Dantonio was so thrilled about his overtime fake field goal for the win against Notre Dame last week that he had a heart attack. He’s okay, but we think he needs to lay off the coffee a bit. Notre Dame’s not looking to good this year anyway.
Houston, we have a problem. (I’ve been waiting so long to say that!) The Cougars quarterback Case Keenum and his backup Cotton Turner are out with season ending injuries. Keenum has a bum knee and Turner has a broken collarbone. Houston lost to UCLA in a blow out and they probably won’t recover from these damages.
Missouri defensive end Aldon Smith is out two weeks with a broken leg. A broken leg? That sounds like more than a two week thing. Is this guy some kind of cyborg or something?
Colorado head coach Dan Hawkins was so pumped about the Buffaloes games against Hawaii that he head butted a player and cut himself. They needed that emotion to come from behind and win but we’re not sure if it will save the Hawk’s Big 12 campaign.
The olny Ohio player to show some emotion and gusto against Ohio State was the mascot. He jumped Brutus Buckeye and now he’s banned from being a mascot again. It also turns out that he planned to do it all along. Now that’s some mascot grudge.
Man what a crazy roller coaster of an offseason for the Big 12. Who would’ve thought a year ago that the Big 12 would be rocked to its very knees and survive probably one of most weirdest advances in college football history. It was like a whacked out game of Axis & Allies. Welp Germany didn’t win and neither did the Big 10. So here we are going into what is the last season we will ever see for this 12 conference league. Who will come out on top? Roll dice to find out (er read below).
Rivarly Week rolls up into Saturday and we want to spend some time giving homage to what could be Mark Mangino’s last football game. Rumor has it that the kids will lay down Saturday and then be up to play their last game against Kansas next weekend. Mark Mangino has been a huge butt of jokes in recent years because of his orca-fat status. Now being a former orca-fat guy myself, I can sympathize with him (no I’m not writing a Whitlock article). Being that big doesn’t excuse you from being a total jerk. If Mangino was throwing his weight around alot, then it could be very damaging. Maybe one or two incidents would be overlooked but if it’s been more and more frequent, then the whole body of work will make him more guilty. It looks as though the evidence against him is bursting at the seams and we’ll see this guy on the unemployment line next week. See you later, Mark Mangino, it was fun while it lasted and we hope to see you on The Biggest Loser soon.
We’re back this week with another round of Pick It Standings. Not much of a shake up this weekend in terms of college football and it’s reflected in the pick set. Really when you think about it, there was no real big upset over the weekend, unless you count USC falling down hard to Stanford. Everybody else won as expected and they are turning to corner for the home stretch of the season. This is going to be a tight one to the end, both for the BCS race and the Pick It race. Here’s this week’s lap:
We’re packing again and heading out west again, but this time it’s a little farther. A full tank of gas and some pajammy jams are all locked up and we will be hitting the road after work. Road trips are a big deal to the KCCGD family and we’re happy to take another one for the weekend. Make sure you have good tunes, some tasty drinks, and the right company for road trips. Also, bring a camera because you’ll never know what you’ll see. Hopefully, we’ll get to pick up a pecan log from Stuckey’s on the way. Here’s the the pick set for the week:
Halloween is over and we’re still feeling the hurt over the load of candy and Joose. We rocked many parties and kinda wished we were at one that had Kansas State at Oklahoma on. Oh well. We are still enjoying the various fun sizes of candy. Our favorites include Snickers, Butterfinger, and Milky Way. But enough about candy. We’re sweet on the Pick It Standings now. We also have some tasty BCS standings to go over as the polls turned sweeter to some winning teams over some other teams that had some sour victorious. Get your toothbrush ready, you’ll need it after this.
Another week of football came and went and in between the drizzles, the greasy smells, the turning leaves, and bands hitting the bricks, we gots ourselves some pick it standings sizzling on the grill. So let’s munch on these tasty numbers and see what they turn up. Let’s hope they don’t turn our stomach. No room for leftovers, however, as we are merely just practicing for Thanksgiving. It’s still a month away, you know.
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.
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.
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.
