Yup it’s time I wing them again. I don’t like making things ultra official and professional (note the website) and I will follow that same lack of format for another Pick It and Stick It Special. It’s Dart Board Predictions time! I don’t keep track so if you want to hit me up on the Twitterz (twitter.com/kccgd) or email ([email protected]) and let me know just how smart or dumb I am. So with that out of the way, let’s sharpen up the darts and start tossing. Get out of the way.
- I for some reason kept picking Joe Paterno and Bobby Bowden to kick the bucket on the field. I was wrong on both shots (but there’s a chance with Bobby still). This year I will predict that NO ONE will die on the field. Practice field doesn’t count. I know about the sickle cell.
- After capping off the offseason with a newly announced college football playoffs, college presidents will realize the folly of their way and go back the BCS system. The robots will be replaced by committee members.
- Brent Musburger starts to fade as he delves into dementia not unlike Keith Jackson 10 years ago. The only difference, he will still shill and sound super excited.
- Hey I picked a Big 12 Champion, so who will that champion play? Pretty easy, it’s BCS bowl bound for Oklahoma against Virginia Tech because Frank Beamer.
- So that means that the Hokies will win the ACC again and I’m not sure anyone will really care.
- With the WAC shutting down, you’ll see other lower tier conferences going away. I’m looking at you Sun Belt.
- Charlie Weiss will get so frustrated at Kansas, that his front butt will lash out and strike a player. Unlike his almost twin in old head coach Mark Mangino, no one will seem to care about it. Poor blowhard Weiss.
- The Big East will be renamed to The Big after they finish this year announcing new members Hawaii and Japan.
- Texas A&M and Missouri do okay in the SEC this year. After they get done cleaning up the table when the big boys are done.
- Mike Leech trades his sword in for a bow and arrow and starts pegging apples at Washington State. This somehow inspires Wazzu to double their wins to 2.
- USC will walk into the Pac 12 as the favorite and will more than likely walk out the winner. Oregon lost so much except those tasty uniforms.
- But Matt Barkley will not win the Heisman Trophy. The consolation? The next contestant on The Bachelor.
- Who will win the Heisman? It’s a quarterback sport anymore so I think it will be someone from the that position. I see Geno Smith nailing with Collin Klein coming in second. Such a homer pick.
- Speaking of Kansas State, Bill Snyder will live through the year and see a bowl win finally. Maybe in the Beef O’Bradys Bowl.
- Craig James will spew out some nonsense and get accepted to the Green Party’s ticket for president alongside Rosanne Barr.
- I really do think this may be Michigan’s year for a Big 10 title. Unfortunately as soon as they step on that stage, they will instantly be overhyped and lose out in the Rose Bowl.
- About 100 more players will be suspended due to mysterious ‘team rules’ epidemic going around.
- I will not win Pick It and Stick It again this year. I’m hedging my bet right now and will be saying ‘Called It!’ in December.
- USC will face LSU and win in the BCS National Championship Game. Only because USC did me so well in EA Sports NCAA College Football and LSU just doesn’t have it, much to the chagrin of everything SEC.
- Finally, super predictor Phil Steele will rip off most of my predictions from this column and discredit everything else he did in 2012.
Happy Holidays everybody from the KC College Gameday Crew! It’s been a couple of years now of doing this blog and we’ve learned alot along the way. We also are very thankful for all 12 of you that actually read this internet football rag. It’s not a perfect blog and we strive hard everyday just to make it a little bit better. We wished it could be perfect, but sometimes great things come from imperfections. Much along those same lines, we have Christmas wishes we want to share with you this holiday season:
Alrighty, we are in the 1st quarter of bowl season and fortunately we don’t have any Big 12 bowl games until next week. So we have the opportunity to preview and predict what’s coming up in the next couple of weeks for the Big 12. We’ll talk briefly about the match up and go into our expert predictions. Chew on this while you are doing your last minute shopping on Amazon. Oh and please pick us up something nice while you’re at it.
Continue reading Big 12 Bowl Preview and Predictions →
It’s a short week here at the KCCGD. We gotta pack up tonight and get ready to hit the highway big time for Turkey Day. We still have some time to get pumped for college football. Usually when you think of football and Thanksgiving, it’s the NFL games with Detroit and Dallas. But, there is even a bigger tradition for Thanksgiving and college football. Rivalries are all over the place and it’s spread out nicely across the whole weekend. So while the travel may be plentiful for us and maybe you, we are guaranteed some live college football at some point. Happy Thanksgiving and here’s the Crib Sheet:
- Mascot Monday participant UGA VII of Georgia died last night due to a heart failure. Our condolences goes out to the university and all live animal mascots out there.
- ESPN Page 2 columnist Matthew Iles talks about some of the more goofy rivalry trophies in college football. We like the Old Brass Spittoon the best. I wonder if, at the end of the game, whether or no the winner spits in it and if it makes a ba-doing noise.
- Florida State barely got bowl eligibility last weekend by edging out Maryland 29 – 26. Bobby Bowden may end up being forced out anyway at the end of the year. The guy has been getting from all sides down there.
- Some Big 12 coaches are jumping to the defense of Kansas coach Mark Mangino. Mike Leech and Bob Stoops are covering for him, even though they are alot like him. The surprising one was Bill Snyder 2.0. Coaches need to look out for each other and we’re seeing a pretty good case of this right here.
- Jimmy Clausen could have used some defense when he was cold cocked by a fan in front of a South Bend restaurant. Not very Catholic-like indeed. Jimmy’s out at the end of the year and heading to the NFL. This incident merely sealed the deal.
- That’s just the tip of the iceberg for Notre Dame. Charlie Weis pretty much said it himself when we stated that there is no surprise if the Irish can him at the end of the year. Urban Meyer keeps telling the press he’s out, signaling the start of a new coaching search for the Domers. No more vaunted, Charlie Weis led, Notre Dame Fighthing Irish.
- Taylor Potts last week wore ‘Nick’ on the back of his jersey, now we know why. Mike Leech talks about his man love former Kansas linebacker Nick Reid. He never met him but for some reason he’s always thought Reid was the ultimate football player. We’re still trying to figure this out. It did help inspire them to a win though.
Last year, the Big 12 was a flutter with big time scoring led by big time spread offenses. This year, it’s more of a sputtering of offense here and there. Sure, there have been big scores but it’s mainly been in the form of blowouts. Shootouts are rare this year as we’re seeing scores like last week’s 10-7 barn burner in Lincoln. Where did the offense go? Did the defense show back up? A couple of factors help lead into why we are seeing such a down turn in offense this year.
Continue reading GameDay: Bringing Back the D →
No no, we didn’t forget you today on this all Hallow’s Eve. We just want to spook you out even more with today’s Game Day post. We’re a big fan of the macabre on top of football so we though it would be fun to match up the Big 12 coaches with various members of the Addams Family. If you remember the TV show and if you remember their New Yorker comics then you’re just too damn old. At any rate, most of these guys fit in nicely with each character and you’ll be ghoulishly laughing all along the way. Anything to take the thumping that the Big 12 South is putting on the Big 12 North off of our minds.
Continue reading GameDay: They’re Creepy and They’re Cooky →
We have a full plate here this week on the Crib Sheet so in the interest of avoiding any more food references we stuffed into the last couple of posts, here’s this week’s Crib Sheet:
- Steve Spurrier, South Carolina head coach, complained about tape on the field after their shilacking they took from Alabama last week. So Alabama head coach Nick Saban says they won’t do it again. The kickers were using to place kicks and now the need some other guide to help the ball find the way. Southeastern Conference: Home of the Ticky Tacky Whining.
- Orrin Hatch is poking an prodding his trident in the direction of the Justice Department and President Obama, trying to get a probe of the BCS system again. Hey, it’s an easy target in Utah and we hope he gets relected for all of this posturing and grand standing. Once again, this shows that people from Utah suck.
- The officiating crew from last week’s Florida and Arkansas game were suspended due to a blown personal foul call against an Arkansas player. When you are Florida and on top, the calls will go your way. Southeastern Conference: Home of Protecting the Frontrunners.
- While LeBron James is busy kicking out professional football players, he’s also giving advice to Ohio State quarterback Terrelle Pryor. James says he’s trying to help Pryor handle being a super star athelete. What? You have to win games, and more importantly championships, to be a super star. Right now Pryor is the head guy for a lame-o offense. An offense that just got upset by Purdue.
- When Texas Tech loses bad, count on Mike Leech to say something witty about it. This time, it was something about fat girlfriends. We love him even though his team usually rolls Big 12 North teams.
- The Dallas Fort Worth airport and American Airlines are now doing direct flights to Manhattan, Kansas. What does that mean? Recruiting trips for Kansas State will be less of convenience. The Wildcats had to cut costs for private flights which meant planes going to Topeka or Kansas City held recruits. Will this help? Who knows.
- Goldy Gopher got the slap down for mocking prayer at the beginning of a game last week. I can see that happening if they played Notre Dame or Boston College, but doing it before a Penn State game is a little ridiculous. His punishment? 10 Hail Marys and a bad football team.
- Bob Griese will have to sit a game for making a taco joke on a latino NASCAR driver. Was it because it was racially insensitive or because it was a really bad joke? Griese did get his education at Michigan, you know.
- Speaking of Michigan, there’s a letter of inquiry from the NCAA about the whole practicing too long trouble some players kicked up a month ago. How could the Wolverines be practicing too hard? They’re terrible. Maybe if they were undefeated but they stink too much to be practicing too long. If anything, they are not practicing enough.
- Much to no one’s surprise, Sam Bradford will have a season ending shoulder surgery and then enter the NFL draft. It seemed a little awkward when Bradford left the Texas game a couple of weeks ago. The hit wasn’t as massive as the first injury. Right then I think we all knew Bradford wasn’t gonna chance it. So will he do well in the NFL? Tune in and find out if we ever kick up a KC GameDay blog.
- Iowa Governor Chet Culver goofed up and congratulated only Iowa in a historic win over the weekend. Yes, the Hawkeyes are 8-0 for the first time in forever, but it seems he forgot the Iowa State win over Nebraska in Nebraska for the first time since 1977. If the Cyclones make a bowl, this guy will be elected out of the office.
- John William Lomax III will be charged in the murder of UConn football Jasper Howard. He went to the party but his lawyer says he has nothing to do with it. We’ll find out in court just what happened.
- The NCAA ruled that Oklahoma State wide receiver Dez Bryant will be suspended for the rest of the season. He lied to the NCAA when they went sniffing around a visit he had with Deion Sanders. This seems a little harsh. With other players punching people and coming back, you’d figure they would let him come back and play. To bad for the Cowpokes as they could use him against Texas this weekend.
It was a different day Saturday afternoon. The cold spilled in over the midwest, the clouds filled the sky, and we were actually making the set of night games for the barspot. We huddled ourselves in the late afternoon/evening around the big bar in the sports bar section of Nick and Jake’s. Sports bar section you say? Yup, that’s different too. Nick and Jake’s really isn’t a sports bar. But yet, it is. Bar or not, the games on the television screens kept us nice and cozy.
Continue reading Nick and Jake’s is Half that Great →
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.
We made it through the first week of college football, but not without some bumps and bruises. Injuries were all over the news in the last week, including the Purple Yeti’s back issue. Fortunately he has a myriad of pills to numb any pain. Oklahoma Sooners fans are probably still numbed from last Saturday’s upset loss. So we will dedicate this week’s Crib Sheet to recovering from any mental and physical injuries. 5 out 7 doctors agree the Crib Sheet has soothing properties. Kick back, relax, and enjoy:
- Yeargh! Here’s Mike Leech’s parking spot on the Texas Tech campus. In case you haven’t noticed, he really like pirates.
- Texas A&M mans up and schedules USC and Oregon starting about 6 years from now. Do they expect to be that good to compete with those juggernauts by then? We’re not even sure Mike Sherman will still be coach by then.
- John Glenn dotted the ‘i’ for Ohio State’s opener Saturday. The former senator then strapped on a jet pack and flew out of the stadium, cackingly laughing and flipping everyone off. Or not.
- A swine flu scare caused Stillman College to forfeit a game Saturday. Is Swine Flu so scary that public events must be canceled? It really is the flu. That’s it. Yes, it’s a new strain, but it’s not going to kill anybody. It may thin out the herd but usually that’s small babies and old people.
- Not only was Oregon dominated by Boise State last Thursday 19-8, but they also took hold of the Thug Torch when LeGarrette Blount threw a punch at Boise State’s Byron Hout. The wings are already clipped for the Oregon Ducks and new head coach successor, Chip Kelly. They might salvage the season but it’s an uphill climb. Oh and Blount is suspended for the rest of the season. But Boise State coach Chris Peterson is not reprimanding Hout for instigating the punch.
- Mired in between the cold cock of the Boise State Bronc, was Oklahoma State’s head coach Mike Gundy’s decision not to do a pre game hand shake before their contest against Georgia. The American Football Coaches Association suggested that every team do it in the name of sportsmanship for the first game of the year. Gundy was afraid of on field fights. It didn’t matter, however, as the Cowboys took care of the Bulldogs on the field over the weekend 24-10.
- ESPN sicked their bloggers on the use of technology and college football nowadays. Brian Bennett talked about video games, Adam Rittenberg writes about a distributed network of clips and playbooks called Hudl Pro, Chris Low talks about laptops with massive amounts of game tape from recruits, Graham Watson talks about timing horns, and Ted Miller talks all things Pac 10 with helmet cams and even Skype. When technology failed Paul Rhoads and the rest of his Iowa State coaching staff last Thursday, they turned to a cell phone contingency plan to ‘call’ plays. Technology ho!
- The big news story of the last week was Heisman winner Sam Bradford leaving the Oklahoma game versus BYU at halftime. He injured his throwing shoulder and people went from unsure to about 4 weeks before he can play again. Also, the Sooners were upset in that game. Bradford’s injury slowed the Sooners down, but they were already being outplayed Saturday night. Mix that in with the news that all American tight end Jermaine Gresham is out for the remainder of the season and Sooners are in big trouble after just one week. Will they bounce back or will they fall even further? Fortunately they have a couple of weeks before a real challenge in Miami. We’ll find out by then if they have regrouped or are still blown to pieces.
Most folks outside of the midwest believe that the Big 12 Conference is 2nd nationally amongst conferences in terms of football strength. Much of the talk points toward the Big 12 South. As we roll into the 2009 season, we find some teams reloaded, some teams are out of ammo, and the rest either misfired or are shooting blanks. We’re gonna see where they all stack up and how they will finish in 2009, according the Purple Yeti’s crystal ball. There are some shifts in power, but the top stack will stay the same and most of the close calls will still be close. Hopefully the crystal ball pulls through.
Continue reading Big 12 Preview 2009 →
It was a big week of news and the Crib Sheet is back this week to tell you what mattered. It was Signing Day last week and the ouija board nearly broke from producing signatures sprinkled out across the whole nation. There were some surprises, but most of what was expected came to be true. We mixed in some political goobery and a little bit o’ smack talk to keep things fresh. My guess is the next couple of weeks are going to be dry news wise, so let this be the spike before the long lull. Here’s the crib:
- Newly appointed Jesus of Tennessee Lane Kiffin is crying wolf over Urban Meyer trying to hit up one of his recruits. Lane still got the guy, but maybe the rub off from Al Davis’ fragile shoulders are showing up in Volunteer-land. It’s nice you got the recruit, Lane, but talking smack on Urban will produce some nasty results. Just talk to Georgia. Oh and he apologized.
- Kansas State expectantly showed weakly recruitng wise. Ron Prince poisoned the recruiting and Bill Snyder is going to have an uphill battle for the Wildcats. It’s going to be a big time reboot in Manhattan
- Kansas on the other hand, nabbed a couple of quarterbacks and some other high profile recruits to lead into their highest rated recruiting class ever. Will it show up on the field? Mangino’s shown that he can recruit well and make some talent pay off so look out of the Hawks in the next couple of years.
- Missouri too, had a pretty good recruiting class. They promised some tight end play to Sheldon Richardson but realy this kid is defensive tackle all the way. At any rate, look for them to compete for the North and then choke at some point.
- Nebraska signed about 21 kids to fill out the black shirts. Look out for these guys. With the walk on program back on and some key pick ups, Nebraska will be well on their way to almost going back to the Big 12 Championship game.
- Conference wise, Texas and Oklahoma went 1 and 2, again. Hey they do that every year so get used to it. Colorado had a top 4 conference recruiting ranking last year and look at how they finished. Sleep tight, Texas A&M.
- Bryce Brown is hanging out and making everybody speculate the hell out of him. Everybody else is down and signed but this guy just likes making everyone wait. Also, the big rumor is he might turn pro in some other league. Really, Bryce is a huge tease.
- James Franklin, the Maryland offensive coordinator, was named last Thursday as the successor to Ralph Friedgen. Overlooking the fact that Maryland has done crap the last couple of years, this pick makes sense. If the school is satisfied with mediocrity then they should continue in it.
- Mike Leech is culling his old lawyer skills and is still banging out a contract with Texas Tech. So the Red Raiders are apparently pulling a Boston College and telling Leech he can’t talk or interview with other teams during his contract. If they break off now, look for him to be somewhere else after this year. Come Texas Tech, fumble this one away!
- Okay, this is getting redonkulous. Now all of Utah’s lawmakers are sending a resolution to PrezBama to blow away the BCS and give in to the power of playoffs. Now with football players on hand! Please somebody tell the whole state of Utah to get over it and focus on getting the Mountain West the automatic bid. Going the political route won’t work.
- Missouri pulled in LSU tight ends coach Josh Henson. It looks as thought some SEC cred might be seeping into the Big 12. Recruiting wise, this will help out the Tigers immensly. Tim Griffin’s already saying they’re going after Bryce Brown too.
- Dana Dimel is coming back to K-State. So he did a great job for Mike Stoops and reviving some offense and it looks like he’ll be doing the same at K-State. Let’s hope that it will be more than Ron Prince’s “Throw-everything-up-and-see-what-sticks” offense.
- In sign of bi-partisanship, Rep. Joe Barton (R) from Texas is siding with PrezBama in setting up a college football playoff. Does he really need the votes? Plus, this guy’s an Aggie. Shouldn’t he be working more toward making Texas A&M a real football team instead of playing up to the playoff people?
College Sports, Kansas City style
