Thoughts on college football after all the finals are in this Saturday....USC vs OSU in the BCS Championship game. I know that's a lot of letters, but there's no way USC loses to UCLA after beating Notre Dame Saturday night...University of Cincinnati locked up a bowl with their last second win over Connecticut. At 7-5, UC pretty much assured Pitt it won't be going to a bowl. Pitt is 6-6....West Virginia's home loss KO'd the Mountaineers from a BCS bowl....Enjoy playing before Christmas, Morgantown...That loss, coupled with Rutgers win means Rutgers will play in the second Big East BCS bowl game, provided that Rutgers beats WVU this coming Saturday. If Rutgers doesn't, the Big East may get only one of its teams, Louisville, in a BCS game....
You want some NFL teams that have to win Sunday? How about the Jets at home against Houston.? At 5-5. the Jets are out of wiggle room....How about 5-5 Atlanta at home with 6-4 New Orleans? 9-7 might be enough for a wild card in the NFC, but there'll be a lot of 9-7 teams if this schedule plays out like I think it will....How about 6-4 Jacksonville at Buffalo? The Jags will catch a break. The weather is supposed to be decent in Buffalo. But the Jags need four more wins in their final six games to reach 10 wins, the minimum I believe for a wild card in the AFC....How about the 5-5 Bengals at the 3-7 Browns? Same deal as the Jags situation here. The Bengals need to get to ten wins and they have only six games to win five. Two of those remaining six are at Indianapolis and at Denver.
Ken
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Showing posts with label Rutgers. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Rutgers. Show all posts
Saturday, November 18, 2006
Final posting from a busy day in college football...no, Michigan and Ohio State should NOT play against each other in the BCS Championship game...OSU will play either USC or Notre Dame. Next week's game will determine that....81 points combined must have made Woody and Bo laugh hard and shake their heads in disbelief....Troy Smith will win the Heisman...Saturday night, the bubble burst for Rutgers.....they ran into a Cincinnati team playing its best football of the season....UC was forced to start its back up quarterback, Nick Davila, when Dustin Grutza was hurt earlier in the week...Rutgers wasn't going to the BCS Championship game, even if it finished the season unbeaten....this loss may have cost the Scarlet Knights a spot in any other BCS game....UC locked up a bowl bid with the win....it could play in a more significant game with a win at Connecticut next Saturday...the crowed was boisterous at Nippert Stadium.....but only 27,000 for a game like this? And with a lot of fans in the house thanks to some two for one ticket give aways...this was not good...it was the biggest win, arguably in UC history....it was the highest ranked team the UC football team has beaten in school history....I'll repeat again what I have said publicly numerous times: UC is lucky to have Mark Dantonio as its head coach....he'll get overtures in the next six weeks and the school better do everything in its power to keep him....Dantonio is the third lowest paid head coach among all BCS teams.
Ken
Ken
14 play drive, touchdown Troy Smith to Roy Hall....Smith and Hall converted three times on third down and one of those was third and 16, when Hall and Smith hooked up for 21 yards. Each team has had the ball once, each team has scored....pretty good start.
Traction on the recently replanted OSU turf seems to be dicey...it's only been three weeks since this most recent resurfacing
There's another good BCS match up in Ohio tonight...unbeaten Rutgers plays at Cincinnati. UC's defense was ripped apart pretty good by West Virginia last week...Rutgers like to run...22,000 tickets have reportedly been sold for the 7:45pm start...
Traction on the recently replanted OSU turf seems to be dicey...it's only been three weeks since this most recent resurfacing
There's another good BCS match up in Ohio tonight...unbeaten Rutgers plays at Cincinnati. UC's defense was ripped apart pretty good by West Virginia last week...Rutgers like to run...22,000 tickets have reportedly been sold for the 7:45pm start...
Friday, November 17, 2006
On the eve of "The Big Game", there are a couple of other games I want to deal with. First, is the 'other big game' in college football Saturday. Unbeaten Rutgers invades Nippert Stadium for a 7:45pm match up with the University of Cincinnati. This game may have as many playoff implications as the one in Columbus.
The battle between OSU and Michigan will probably eliminate one team from the BCS Championship game. A win by UC Saturday will surely eliminate Rutgers from any championship game consideration. Rutgers is still a long shot, even with a win in Cincinnati.
But in a sense, this is a much bigger game for UC. It has been on national television twice this season, winning once, losing once.. But the bigger story than the games with Pitt and South Florida has been the pathetic attendance. It was so bad at the South Florida game, that the ESPN director was instructing his camera people to 'shoot tight' to avoid showing the enormous amount of empty seats.
UC football has never been the 'thing to do' in Cincinnati. It's campus is tough to get to, tough to find parking on and not exactly surrounded by the safest neighborhood in Cincinnati. For all of those reasons, the discretionary ticket buyer has avoided UC football.
There's another reason why UC struggles to get fans to Nippert: it's brand of football hasn't exactly been the most exciting variety. Under previous coach, Rick Minter, defense was stressed. Under current coach, Mark Dantonio (one of the truly great people and rising stars in the coaching profession), ball control offense has been the hallmark.
Like it or not, what will attract a crowd to a product that historically has struggled (and it doesn't matter if it's football or food products) is excitement, a 'buzz', a 'got to get there, got to have it' kind of thing. UC football is competing for the entertainment dollar. It has to appeal to the fringe fan, who would just as well spend his or her dollar on a movie as they would go to a football game in Clifton. The way to create that excitement, that buzz, is to field a team that has an offense that can score from anywhere, 'light it up'. Most coaches hate that, because it takes a large amount of control out of their hands. Turnovers become more of a factor, your defense will have to spend more time on the field because you either turn it over of score quickly, and your quarterback needs to he 'on' every game. Coaches hate to give up control of anything, most of all their on field product.
But, if UC were to go down that road, I believe it would begin building a stronger following. Remember, this is still a commuter school. Students and faculty leave the campus in droves Friday evenings and don't return until the following Monday. UC is battling that, too. But, everybody loves a good time, everybody loves a party. Create that atmosphere on the field, and that program will have a chance. It's a leap of faith, philosophically, for Dantonio and his staff. But I believe they have the talent to pull it off.
Now, to the other 'big game'. Unless you've lived through it, unless you've attended Ohio University, suffered with their football team and its string of broken promises, bad coaches and awful records, it's tough to fully appreciate what happened in Athens, Ohio, Thursday night. Last night, Ohio University won the MAC East division.....in football. Just stringing those words together would, in most years, be cause for loved ones to have you seek help.
Ohio (they've pretty much dropped the University part and for God sake, don't ever say Ohio U again) dominated Akron, enroute to a 17-7 win. It pushed the Bobcats record this season to 8-3, with a game at rival Miami coming up next Friday. The 'Cats have a spot in the MAC Championship game on November 30 against Central Michigan.
The architect behind all of this is head coach, Frank Solich. Fired by Nebraska in 2004 for having the audacity to only go 9-3 (and a win over Miami next week would give him the same record at OU), Solich has taken a rag tag bunch of left overs from his predecessor, added two of his own recruiting classes and has pulled the Bobcats out of the abyss with an option offense and a defensive strategy straight out of the Big 12. The Bobcats have gone on the road this season and beaten MAC pre-season champion pick Northern Illinois, MAC east division pre-season pick Kent State and pulled off an upset win at Big Ten Illinois. Their only losses were to Bowling Green, at Missouri and at Rutgers. This isn't a Cinderella season in Athens, Ohio. This is Walt Disney opening the entire vault.
The brains behind this operation is Ohio University school President, Dr. Roderick McDavis, who hired Solich and paid him a salary the second highest on campus, only to his. McDavis watched in late 2004 when five MAC football teams marched to bowl games (and minimum $750,000 pay days) and figured hiring a big time coach and finally fixing the football team would accomplish two things. One, if it won, it would bring in money that would help pay for the rest of his athletic program that had often operated in the 'red'. Two, it would get some positive publicity for his school, often confused nationally with Ohio State and worse Miami, Ohio.
Academia, I'm told, scoffed at the idea and bristled when McDavis paid Solich a salary approaching $250,000 a year. Memo to academia: nobody in the chemistry department, or biology lab or in the english department gets in the newspaper or on the nightly TV news unless they find a formula for synthetic gas, develope a cure for the common cold or write modern day Shakespeare. That's a tough one for academia to handle, I know. I love teachers. None of us would be where we are without them. But in colleges, athletics have always been the calling card for a university to sell it's other products. Get 'em in the tent with athletics, then tell them the good news about your academics. McDavis 'got' that.
With Thursday night's win, Ohio (U) will go to a bowl game. Solich will be hailed and probably forgiven for his DUI in Athens last winter. The University can now tell its story to the nation on a higher platform. It's Scripps School of Journalism, its radio-tv department, its business school, it's school of oesteopathic medicine and the rest of what makes Ohio University special will get more of a national spotlight.
It's been a long time coming. It may be only football. But this is why it matters. It is great to be finally out of the hole.
Come on over to my web site: www.kenbroo.com. I'll see you there!
Ken
The battle between OSU and Michigan will probably eliminate one team from the BCS Championship game. A win by UC Saturday will surely eliminate Rutgers from any championship game consideration. Rutgers is still a long shot, even with a win in Cincinnati.
But in a sense, this is a much bigger game for UC. It has been on national television twice this season, winning once, losing once.. But the bigger story than the games with Pitt and South Florida has been the pathetic attendance. It was so bad at the South Florida game, that the ESPN director was instructing his camera people to 'shoot tight' to avoid showing the enormous amount of empty seats.
UC football has never been the 'thing to do' in Cincinnati. It's campus is tough to get to, tough to find parking on and not exactly surrounded by the safest neighborhood in Cincinnati. For all of those reasons, the discretionary ticket buyer has avoided UC football.
There's another reason why UC struggles to get fans to Nippert: it's brand of football hasn't exactly been the most exciting variety. Under previous coach, Rick Minter, defense was stressed. Under current coach, Mark Dantonio (one of the truly great people and rising stars in the coaching profession), ball control offense has been the hallmark.
Like it or not, what will attract a crowd to a product that historically has struggled (and it doesn't matter if it's football or food products) is excitement, a 'buzz', a 'got to get there, got to have it' kind of thing. UC football is competing for the entertainment dollar. It has to appeal to the fringe fan, who would just as well spend his or her dollar on a movie as they would go to a football game in Clifton. The way to create that excitement, that buzz, is to field a team that has an offense that can score from anywhere, 'light it up'. Most coaches hate that, because it takes a large amount of control out of their hands. Turnovers become more of a factor, your defense will have to spend more time on the field because you either turn it over of score quickly, and your quarterback needs to he 'on' every game. Coaches hate to give up control of anything, most of all their on field product.
But, if UC were to go down that road, I believe it would begin building a stronger following. Remember, this is still a commuter school. Students and faculty leave the campus in droves Friday evenings and don't return until the following Monday. UC is battling that, too. But, everybody loves a good time, everybody loves a party. Create that atmosphere on the field, and that program will have a chance. It's a leap of faith, philosophically, for Dantonio and his staff. But I believe they have the talent to pull it off.
Now, to the other 'big game'. Unless you've lived through it, unless you've attended Ohio University, suffered with their football team and its string of broken promises, bad coaches and awful records, it's tough to fully appreciate what happened in Athens, Ohio, Thursday night. Last night, Ohio University won the MAC East division.....in football. Just stringing those words together would, in most years, be cause for loved ones to have you seek help.
Ohio (they've pretty much dropped the University part and for God sake, don't ever say Ohio U again) dominated Akron, enroute to a 17-7 win. It pushed the Bobcats record this season to 8-3, with a game at rival Miami coming up next Friday. The 'Cats have a spot in the MAC Championship game on November 30 against Central Michigan.
The architect behind all of this is head coach, Frank Solich. Fired by Nebraska in 2004 for having the audacity to only go 9-3 (and a win over Miami next week would give him the same record at OU), Solich has taken a rag tag bunch of left overs from his predecessor, added two of his own recruiting classes and has pulled the Bobcats out of the abyss with an option offense and a defensive strategy straight out of the Big 12. The Bobcats have gone on the road this season and beaten MAC pre-season champion pick Northern Illinois, MAC east division pre-season pick Kent State and pulled off an upset win at Big Ten Illinois. Their only losses were to Bowling Green, at Missouri and at Rutgers. This isn't a Cinderella season in Athens, Ohio. This is Walt Disney opening the entire vault.
The brains behind this operation is Ohio University school President, Dr. Roderick McDavis, who hired Solich and paid him a salary the second highest on campus, only to his. McDavis watched in late 2004 when five MAC football teams marched to bowl games (and minimum $750,000 pay days) and figured hiring a big time coach and finally fixing the football team would accomplish two things. One, if it won, it would bring in money that would help pay for the rest of his athletic program that had often operated in the 'red'. Two, it would get some positive publicity for his school, often confused nationally with Ohio State and worse Miami, Ohio.
Academia, I'm told, scoffed at the idea and bristled when McDavis paid Solich a salary approaching $250,000 a year. Memo to academia: nobody in the chemistry department, or biology lab or in the english department gets in the newspaper or on the nightly TV news unless they find a formula for synthetic gas, develope a cure for the common cold or write modern day Shakespeare. That's a tough one for academia to handle, I know. I love teachers. None of us would be where we are without them. But in colleges, athletics have always been the calling card for a university to sell it's other products. Get 'em in the tent with athletics, then tell them the good news about your academics. McDavis 'got' that.
With Thursday night's win, Ohio (U) will go to a bowl game. Solich will be hailed and probably forgiven for his DUI in Athens last winter. The University can now tell its story to the nation on a higher platform. It's Scripps School of Journalism, its radio-tv department, its business school, it's school of oesteopathic medicine and the rest of what makes Ohio University special will get more of a national spotlight.
It's been a long time coming. It may be only football. But this is why it matters. It is great to be finally out of the hole.
Come on over to my web site: www.kenbroo.com. I'll see you there!
Ken
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