Archive for the ‘Shoutin' Out’ Category

In case you hadn’t noticed, there is a great new video resource available on the web over at FanDome.com which has assembled one of the best and most varied collection of sports videos on the web.  What’s even better is that all of the videos are classified by team and sport—making it much easier to find what you’re looking for.  What’s more, if you take the 30 seconds required to become a registered user (registration is free by the way), you have the ability to affiliate with your favorite teams.  Thus, registered users get a profile page  which automatically displays all the videos associated with their team.  In my case—surprise, surprise—that would be Tennessee.  All of the major teams across the nation have their own FanDome categorized by sport.  Tennessee has both a Football FanDome and a Basketball FanDome.

The video upload process is amazingly simple, allowing you to upload from your own computer or from other sites such as YouTube.  To top it all off, the folks over at FanDome have created a series of video widgets which show all the latest content for a given team.  You can check out their widget over in the right sidebar here at the Gate (that’s this way  for those of you who are directionally challenged).  Thankfully, all of the content on display is embeddable, linkable, etc., just like this little clip:

The content is as varied and, at the same time, well-organized as I’ve seen on any of the various video sites across the web.  FanDome has really done a nice job in putting together its virtual smorgasbord of sports video.  If you like YouTube and the like at all, FanDome really is worth checking out.

– Go Figure …

**Disclosure: While both Gate 21 and FanDome.com feature hyperlinks to one another, neither site, their editors, nor their webmasters receive any payment or other compensation of any type or kind in return for those links.  Furthermore, neither Gate 21 nor lawvol received any compensation for this review, which was neither requested nor solicited by FanDome.com.  This “Shout Out” represents the actual opinion of the author (for what that is worth) and was in no way influenced by any other person.

Despite being tied up in trial, I am still (reasonably) aware of what’s going on in the world of the Tennessee Volunteers.

That doesn’t just mean football … anymore.

In case you didn’t know, the BasketVols are back!  In anticipation of Bruce and the Barbarians holding their first practice of the 2008-09 season, my good friend RBK has been counting down the Top 25 Moments in the Bruce Pearl era over at the BruceBall Blog.  There are some great ones in his list, including the No. 1 moment: Winning an outright SEC Championship for the first time in 41 years.

If you love the BasketVols, you simply have to check out this list, as well as the rest of RBK’s wide assortment of Big Orange roundball goodness.

I promise, it’s worth your while…

– Go Figure …

Last week offered some great in-conference matchups and a couple turned out to be more lopsided than many thought. The great conference games continue this week, as the races begin to take shape.

Indeed, the conference races will continue to take shape as the temperatures drop around the country (it was 86 in Knoxville yesterday) and leaves start falling everywhere. Yes, I’m avoiding mentioning Tennessee’s now meaningless season by discussing the weather…

Another larger storyline that’s been discussed already this week is the Big 12’s apparent attempt to claim itself as the best conference. While the league is pretty good at the top, I still think the SEC has better depth, even with the struggles of Tennessee and Auburn.

Anyways, here’s the games to watch, and hopefully this time I’ll do a better job picking them – I picked LSU, Oklahoma, Missouri, Kentucky, Vanderbilt, and they all lost…

SEC Games

Vanderbilt at Georgia (12:00, RayCom): So much for that little run. Vandy just missed out on a huge opportunity to get to 6 or more wins. There’s still chances with games against Kentucky, Tennessee and Duke, but beating Florida, Georgia and Wake Forest may be a tough order. Vandy’s offensive struggles were exposed last week against Mississippi State, and Georgia’s not the best team to face with an iffy offense…

The questions with Georgia: they left plenty of points to be gotten last week against the Vols, with two picks and kicking four field goals. They better not overlook Vandy, as trips to LSU and the showdown with Jacksonville come in the next two weeks.

Ole Miss at Alabama (3:30, CBS): Alabama comes off the bye looking to continue the momentum from hammering Georgia and edging Kentucky two weeks ago. Ole Miss has been better, yet horribly inconsistent, beating Florida on the road but falling to Vandy and South Carolina at home.

I don’t expect Ole Miss to win, but they should keep it close. I’m still expecting Alabama to lose a game, but it won’t be Saturday. The matchup to watch is the Tide’s offensive line against the Rebels’ defensive front. The only way Ole Miss can win is limiting the turnovers that hurt them in their two home SEC losses.

Arkansas at Kentucky (7:00, ESPNU): Give me some credit, last week I didn’t explicitly pick Arkansas to upset Auburn, but I did say the Hogs were gonna get somebody at some point this year and they did. Can they follow it up? Kentucky’s offense is still struggling, so Arkansas can certainly keep it close. This is a big game for UK’s bowl hopes, as they sit at four wins on the year.

This 63-yard TD run by Michael Smith led Arkansas to the upset over Auburn. Can they Hogs get UK this week?

Mississippi State at Tennessee (7:00, PPV): Ugh. Good thing this game is on pay-per-view…who wants to watch these offenses?

Uh oh...Mississippi State held Vanderbilt to 107 yards of total offense...

Obviously I do, because I’ll be there in the fourth row. I’m expecting an ugly game with points few and far between. Tennessee can’t really lose at home to Mississippi State, can they? State has played decently the past two games, and no doubt have some momentum coming into Knoxville. How does Tennessee show up with nothing but pride to play for? Is Phil Fulmer the next coach to be Croomed like Ron Zook and Mike Shula?

LSU at South Carolina (8:00, ESPN): Ouch. Didn’t see that coming. LSU got crushed by Florida, and now they travel over to Columbia to a Carolina offense that’s gained some confidence with SEC road wins in Oxford and Lexington. Whoever’s been playing QB for the Gamecocks – Chris Smelley and/or Stephen Garcia – have actually done pretty well.

LSU’s defense isn’t what it was last year – they’re 9th in the league in total defense. Carolina’s defense is going up against an inexperienced QB and an offense that got beat physically by Florida last week. How do they respond?

Honestly, I want to say Carolina will win. But this is historically one of those “almost” wins for the South Carolina program. “Almost” as in they “almost” win a huge home game over a better opponent. That said, I think LSU bounces back, setting up that showdown with Georgia next weekend.

Florida is off this week, but I want to give a little shout-out to Brandon Spikes. Now I hate the Gators and hope they fail at everything, but when something’s funny, it’s funny. Here’s Brandon Spikes’ attempt at a punt into the stands after a pick-six…

OTHER CONFERENCES

Some Mountain West love: big game tonight for unbeaten BYU, as they travel to TCU tonight. The unbeaten Cougars essentially have two tests between them and a BCS Bowl: tonight and the season finale at fellow unbeaten Utah. Keep an eye on this game…

The Weekly Duke Update:After a bye week, the 3-2 Blue Devils are back in action with a big game, at home against young Miami. Just 4.5-point dogs, Duke looks for the upset. This game is on ESPNU at 3:30, so if Alabama starts killing Ole Miss (and you actually have ESPNU), switch on over and see if the missed Coach Cut can lead Duke to the upset. The emptiness of Duke’s stadium won’t have any adverse effects on the Canes – they’re used to it…

Big XII

Kansas at Oklahoma (3:30, ABC): Oklahoma and Bob Stoops is going to be pissed off. Poor, poor Kansas. They avoided OU and Texas last year. Er, not this year. How Kansas stops OU I have no clue. Then again, the Sooner defense got worn down watching Texas go up-and-down the field on them in Dallas. Kansas keeps it close – for a half.

Missouri at Texas (8:00, ABC): So much for Missouri beating Oklahoma State by three TDs. The Tigers essentially gave the game away, and now face a make-or-break game at #1 Texas. I say make-or-break because Missouri’s schedule is pretty clear sailing after this game, and they obviously have to win to stay relevant in the title race.

Can Texas return to earth after beating their hated rival last week? This should be a pretty high-scoring game (duh, it’s the Big XII new Pac 10…), and entertaining. I think Texas wins the game in the fourth quarter.

Javon Ringer faces a tough Ohio State defense Saturday afternoon

Big Ten

Ohio State at Michigan State (3:30, ABC):
Yes, people, Michigan State is very much in the Big Ten race. Of course they have to beat Ohio State to stay there. The Spartans are led by HB Javon Ringer, but the Ohio State defense is tough up front.

Ohio State has been overly impressive on offense. They have actually been kinda bad. If Michigan State doesn’t give up a special teams or defensive TD to the Buckeyes, I like their chances to keep Ohio State’s offense in check. The winner would become the biggest challenger to the dominance Penn State has shown this year.

Michigan at Penn State (4:30, ESPN): I know, I know, Michigan sucks and Penn State is really good. Thought losing to Toledo is bad? The Wolverines better be ready to get blasted Saturday. Penn State is a legit team. Keep in mind two things: (1) Penn State hasn’t beaten Michigan since 1996 and (2) they are at Ohio State next weekend.

Outside of these games, there isn’t much else. We all know USC will win the Pac 10 and whoever wins the Big East doesn’t matter. As it is, enjoy this weekend…

Images Courtesy of: Dave Martin / AP (Daylife) • Rogelio V. Solis / AP (Daylife) • Nam Y. Huh / AP (Daylife)

Oh Yeah, Basketball

With lawvol swamped, I have been given the steering wheel here at Gate 21. How do I respond?? With a basketball-related post – in the second week of October. That’s what 2-3 and little hope does, but I’ll have more on that plus the newly-revived Big Orange Roundtable AND the usual “On Remote” college football preview.

The joys of Fall Break and some extra time…

Anyways, the inspiration for this post, you ask? On my way back to my apartment just now, I of course see freshman Renaldo Woolridge walking down by Pratt/TBA. Not thirty seconds later, who do I see? Emmanuel Negedu. My first Negedu sighting.

Now Woolridge just had a story about his rap talent in this morning’s Knoxville News-Sentinel, where I currently work. I got a chance to listen to it for a moment this morning and I gotta say if his basketball skills are near his rap skills, Tennessee got a great player – I think they already did anyways…

Now compare this to this summer’s hit, Bobby “Big-Money” Maze’s “I Put on for Tennessee,” which was on YouTube…

These of course have little to do with Tennessee basketball, other than the incredible rise in the program’s street cred. Honestly, you could assume and guess that stuff like this helps recruiting, especially if Bruce Pearl has nothing to really say about it (I’m not sure I’ve seen his comments on any of it either…). It certainly can’t hurt, right?

I guess I just had basketball on my mind (and not Georgia…get it?!) this afternoon. Weird and all since it’s Georgia week, but you’ll get my thoughts and understand why a little later this week…

Reason #15,653 to love Bruce Pearl: the Vols now have two rappers...

Thanks Phil, But…

Saturday afternoon was it for me. I have avoided jumping over to the side of the fence that wants a change in the head coaching position at Tennessee for quite awhile now, but Saturday’s performance pushed me over said fence full-bore.

The bottom line is that Tennessee is going to be a middle-of-the-pack SEC program until a change at the head coaching position is made.

I flirted with jumping on the “Fire Fulmer” wagon after the 59-20 loss to Florida last year, but still didn’t. That day, the reason was the fact that our team quit and attitude reflects leadership. I even managed to avoid it after the horrible trip to Alabama when the entire staff forgot how to do their jobs. I dismissed UCLA as a fluke.

But Saturday’s performance was just an awful display of football in every phase of this great game. Tennessee may not have the talent of the 90s (as Ghost of Neyland over at 3SIB points out here) and Florida may be loaded, but the fact of the matter is that Tennessee is too talented a team to get blown out at home and play as poorly as they did.

My most adamant complaint is kicking to Brandon James – twice. He beat us – both times. What does it take? Essentially three (in the sense one was called back) times we have let him beat us. Three. I threatened all week that if we kicked to him and he returned it, I would leave Neyland Stadium. I about did.

Obviously we should have punted it to Section P, but apparently everybody BUT our coach (or our punter) already new that...

Offensively, the execution is pitiful. Most of that I think is because Jonathan Crompton is, for lack of a better word, incompetent. Is he progressing? Slightly, but he is so mistake-prone that it’s to a point where Dave Clawson is now limited as to what he can do. I’m still giving Clawson the benefit of the doubt, but Crompton just doesn’t have it between the ears. I miss Erik Ainge…

Arian Foster, our supposed senior leader on offense, gets a stupid personal foul penalty making a third-and-short into a third-and-long, yet he misses no time. Foster disappeared in a big game yet again, yet still is the starter and Tennessee’s primary ball carrier when BOTH Montario Hardesty and Lennon Creer have shown more explosiveness. I have liked Arian, but I have been told that he isn’t the leader many of us expected he would be.

Defensively, I don’t know what to say. Yes, we held the powerfully explosive Gators to 200-something yards, but I credit that more to the fact Florida basically ran draw and read plays the entire second half up 27-0. You would have a tough time telling me that if that game was being played in Gainesville Saturday, that Florida doesn’t get 50.

That said, the defensive effort is certainly there. They showed some backbone and never stopped fighting, but what’s the point? What more can Eric Berry do? When is his play going to infect everyone else? We still can’t stop anybody on third downs…

Don’t even get me started on special teams. Lawvol went through that extensively in the new “Marching Orders from the General” feature (we have yet another one on tap for tomorrow as well). Maybe it’s just Chad Cunningham…

Defenses we still play: Auburn, Georgia, Alabama, South Carolina, Vanderbilt, and yes, even Kentucky...UH OH

Florida made it look real, real easy Saturday. They didn’t even really have to try much and just let Tennessee make mistakes. Yes the Gators made plays when they had to, but they made that win look terrifyingly easy. They got in, got out, and on their way to their tougher games against LSU and Georgia.

Point is that this is just not a good football team from the coaching on down. And it’s a shame, too. There’s a pretty good level of talent on this team and it’s being wasted. The players work too hard for this. Offensively this is mostly due to the poor QB play. Overall, defense included, this team just lacks aggressiveness.

I watch LSU pull out a gutsy win at Auburn Saturday night, and they run an onside kick and their defense (Auburn’s, Georgia’s, Florida’s, Alabama’s this season as well) is just flying around making plays. In scoring position with a chance at a game-winning FG, does Les Miles run it up the middle? No, he takes his freshman QB and throws a tough throw/route for the winning TD. Nick Saban is playing freshmen everywhere.

We are too tentative, too conservative, too afraid of making a mistake, and they are inevitable. And they happen. We can’t get a freaking handoff. My friends and I could execute a handoff. We have no swagger that I see from these other teams. There’s no question about the effort – which could be some reason for hope, maybe – but that’s about it.

That pretty much sums up this past Saturday...

That’s coaching, people. And for Tennessee to return to the level of being able to compete legitimately in today’s SEC, there’s going to have to be a change. Coach Fulmer has done more for this University than just about anybody else and deserves that credit. But it’s time for him to step down. I just hope when it does happen, that it goes without too much drama and the nonsense that’s happened at other schools (Rich Rodriguez comes to mind).

Unlike the ever-optimistic Lawvol, I have bailed on this season. I know I did foolishly last year, but I see no reason for a turnaround. None. At. All. Will I stop watching games? No, I’ll be at Auburn Saturday and in Neyland for Northern Illinois next weekend. I’m still a fan, but there’s something not right about not even overly caring that we got beat 30-6 on our own field a few hours after watching it happen.

It’s a sad, sad time for the Tennessee football program…

But let’s all remember to stick with the team through all this. It’s time like these that make the better days so much sweeter.

GO VOLS!!

Images Courtesy of: Doug Finger / Gainesville Sun • Streeter Lecka / Getty Images (Orlando Sentinel Picture #18)

Round-Up: It’s Football Time Again

My first week as the host of the totally awesome Big Orange Roundtable has come to a close, and I thoroughly enjoyed doing it. Actually, the Big Orange Roundtable has just completed it’s first run-through of all the Vol bloggers and it starts back up next week over at Yo’ Mama Slept With Big Wilt. I’m sure Thomas will have some excellent questions as it’s Florida week.

GOOD WORK EVERYONE!!

Enough of me, time for me to share the Roundtable’s answers. Since we’re all family here on the Roundtable and I’m just a nice guy, I’m going to include everyone in the round-up. You’re welcome…

(1) So we’re all still pissed off from losing to a UCLA team we would without a doubt beat at worst eight times out of 10, and now a pretty bad UAB team comes to Knoxville before the epic showdown with Florida and the rest of the SEC gauntlet – the deep breath before the plunge, if you will. What I simply want to know is what do YOU want to see from the Vols this Saturday?

Most of the answers to this question involved three things: (1) running the football, (2) some reason to feel positive about Jonathan Crompton, and (3) better coaching.

The always funny Jai Eugene at LWS wants better hands from the receivers (and Arian Foster). Thomas at YMSWWC used this question as an opportunity to bash RayCom’s three Daves. MoonDog wants the coaches to show that they actually can adjust in-game. Ghost over at 3SIB wants our offensive line to find their male parts and lead the way to an unstoppable running attack.

Much like Ghost, Will at SESB wants a reason to believe…and to pound the football only as to prepare for the Florida showdown next Saturday. New Roundtable member Patrick (what a great name!) at C4J uses his days of living in the B’ham and makes it personal: he wants to kick the Blazers while they’re down with a 65-point beatdown an old-fashioned ass-whoopin’.

(2) Flashback to Saturday night in Gainesville: up 23-3, Florida gets a good punt return by Brandon James inside the Miami 20. With 1:56 left, Urban Meyer sends Tim Tebow back in, and, after a screen pass, a throw into the endzone, and a lost-yardage run, Florida kicks a sand-in-the-face field goal with :25 left, prompting a death stare from Cane coach Randy Shannon and eventually a “handshake” at midfield after the game. Thoughts?

I have to be honest, I asked this question for the sole purpose of bashing Urban Meyer and watching others do it too. I hate Urban Meyer. Ghost also hates Nick Saban, but respects him. Urban? Not so much. Thomas calls Urban an asshole. Patrick does wish Randy Shannon had punched Urban’s face off. Jai? He makes the Gators/Patriots comparison.

MoonDog and Will took the higher road and didn’t express dislike for Urban Meyer or his move, with good reasoning. MoonDog points out the Gators’ recent fails against Miami and sending the message that Florida is the state’s best team as good enough reason to kick the field goal. Will went all sneaky – he says Miami should act like it’s not big deal on the outside, but use it for motivation to build up to the next meeting with the Gators and exact revenge then.

(3) And finally, a question that I’m not sure has been so directly asked in the course of the Roundtable, but one that needs answering: the “woo” in Rocky Top…do you “woo” and why do/don’t you “woo”?

This question sparked quite a bit of debate, as I thought. We actually had a comment on Gate 21 saying a trumpet player back in ‘92/’93 “woo”ed once. The band caught on and started doing it, then the stadium followed and the rest is history. Whether that’s true or not, the “woo” has been a part of Rocky Top as long as I can remember. But the consensus on the Roundtable? The “woo” sucks.

Thomas says “woo”ing is only for Ric Flair (see below…). MoonDog wants to shoot the aforementioned trumpet player for starting it. Patrick went with the gutsy admission of his love of the “woo,” expressing his inner Mike Gundy. Will? admits he enjoys the “woo,” but also defaulted to Ghost, whose answer was nothing short of epic…

This is going to bring into question my manhood, but I’m OK with that. I’m confident in my sexuality, but I must answer this with a story.

My wife — Mrs. Ghost — is a beautiful but immature lady. I love her, but she’s a Bama fan, No. 1, and No. 2, she absolutely loves 1980s music. Now, I’m not talking about the Thompson Twins, Howard Jones, Africa and all the tolerable stuff. No, no, no. My wife loves the New Kids on the Block. (I have another name for them … Yes, it’s the same as yours.) Well, Mrs. Ghost has been beside herself about the release of NKOTB’s new album — which since I download … er… bought, she HATES by the way — because she loved, loved, LOVED that new song about the Girls of Summer, or something like that.

So, I got the CD for her Sunday afternoon and on the way to church that night, she proceeds to pop in the CD and play the song that is on the radio right now. It is a terrible song with no vocal quality at all, but it’s got a catchy beat. Now, when I say that sentence right there, my wife says, “You know you like it.” And I hate it. The “B-A-N-A-N-A-S” song by Gwen Stefani was horrible. The “My Humps” song is my least favorite song of all-time. Going back even further, I despise “Love Shack” by the B-52’s. But it’s those songs — THOSE HORRIBLE SONGS — that get in your head. So, sure enough, when we were waiting for preaching to start standing on the front porch, I began humming the song. My wife gets a little half-smile, looks at me sideways and says, “See, you DO like that song.” I wanted to punch her.

Anyway, all that brings me to this: I’m completely and whole-heartedly against the WOO! in Rocky Top. I hate it. I think it’s stupid. If we wanted a stupid cheer, we’d have adopted Two Bits from the Gators or not let Ole Miss steal “Hotty Toddy” from us. I hate stupidity. And the “WOO” is our stupidity.

But, but, but in the heat of the moment after we score a touchdown and we’re dancing in the aisles and high-fiving complete strangers and clapping, I’ve caught myself WOOING before. I’m completely and abashedly ashamed. My fandom should be revoked.

That said, I hope there are thousands of WOOs! come Saturday.

Ghost, that took guts. Jai, not to be outdone, gives us his own history of the “woo,” and discusses how 14 year-old girls view the “woo.” I’m still laughing at his answer.

As I commented on 3SIB, I think everybody – even the toughest of the “tough” guys – deep, deep, down, knows they have “woo”ed before – they’re just in denial. And as my last act as Roundtable host, I’m going to plain straight overload on the “woo”…

Guys, it’s been fun. Maybe lawvol – who also answered my questions here – will let me answer next week…

Week Three!

It’s that time again – Thursday morning, meaning the weekend is just around the corner. And of course weekends in the fall are all about college football Saturdays and hoping I’ll win my weekly fantasy matchup on Sundays.

This week is different from the first two in two ways: first, Tennessee finally FINALLY plays a freakin’ home game. This good because (a) I’m pretty sure every Tennessee fan is ready to play another game, if for no other reason than to get the remaining bitterness from UCLA out of the mouth and look ahead to the Florida-Auburn-Georgia death-road and (b) home games weekends are what make my fall semesters (don’t forget about the facelift renovations to Neyland Stadium as well).

While Tennessee plays a cupcake in UAB, there’s plenty of other games around the country to look forward to this week. It’s the week before conference play becomes the norm and there are some great matchups.

You know the deal by now – I’ll talk about the SEC games and then the national games of note. However from this point on I’ll change my approach with this section: I’ll be more decisive and selective with which games, and they’ll get attention the same way the SEC games do. Why am I switching things up a little? Because I want to. And I can. Anyways, the games…

SEC Games

UAB at Tennessee: Oh, to be back in the student section at Neyland Stadium. I already said what I was looking for this weekend here, so I won’t go into that. What I’m probably most excited about the actual game? Finally getting to sit in D, thanks to the death of Orange’s Nation illegal block seating.

Arkansas at Texas (ABC, 3:30): Hurricane Ike striketh (not literally…yet) – Arkansas won’t go down to Austin and get hammered until September 27. They host Alabama next weekend, an intriguing game and the first SEC game in under Bobby Petrino. My guess is the Hogs will need the work after escaping total embarrassment by slipping past Western Illinois and UL Monroe.

Georgia at South Carolina (CBS, 3:30): So now Georgia begins the utter brutality (yes, more brutal than a cop at an East Carolina game) that is their schedule. The desperate Chickens seem to be reeling – or wait, that’s just reality setting in…

I’m interested to see how UGA handles their first big test of the year. South Carolina’s defense should keep it close, but are the Gamecocks gonna score? I know they always play UGA tough at home, this game is generally a pretty hard fought, low-scoring game, and Spurrier is good for one win a year over the East’s Big Three, but I just don’t see them winning this game.

Middle Tennessee State at Kentucky/Rice at Vanderbilt: These would be snooze games, except for the small fact that BOTH UK and Vandy – whom I was not expecting much from – have a chance to be 3-0. These were the penciled-in Ws for both teams coming in, and losing would really put a damper on any bowl hopes, especially for the Commodores.

Western Kentucky at Alabama/Samford at Ole Miss: Snooze games of the week, though I’m interested to see if the Tide play any better than they did last week against Tulane.

North Texas at LSU: After some uncertainty due to the aforementioned Ike, this game will be played in Tiger Stadium. It’s gotta be tough on the Tigers, especially since if they don’t play this one (they probably will) it will be a two week bye before they go to Auburn. I just gotta wonder what being an LSU student is like amidst multiple hurricanes…

Auburn at Mississippi State (7:00, ESPN2): Ah yes, more SEC football. I’m still not sold on Auburn’s offense, they looked better against Southern Miss, but definitely still sluggish. We’ll have to see how they handle a road game against a team that beat them last year with defense.

Yes, Chris Todd, I know it is just Starkville, but your first SEC road game is your first SEC road game...

Auburn should win because I don’t think Mississippi State can score on the Auburn defense, but State could easily catch War Eagle looking ahead to home games against LSU and the Vols coming up. Can Sly Croom make it four-in-a-row against the state of Alabama?

FIVE MORE TO WATCH

Ohio State at USC (ABC 8:00): First, I’m glad these two teams are playing this game. Second, anything I could say in terms of analysis about this game would just be more of what you all have already heard/will hear. ESPN’s Pat Forde wrote a good piece about this game here. I’ll take the easy route and borrow a video from Thomas the Terrible over at YMSWWC…that you can watch by clicking HERE!!

Kansas at USF (Friday ESPN2, 8:00): Kansas is playing someone with a pulse! Kansas is playing someone with a pulse! USF could the JV League’s best (oh, I’m referring to the Big East as a JV league from here on), though they almost blew a lead to Kevin Smith-less UCF last week before winning in OT. I like the Bulls because KU is a joke. Yeah, I said it. A joke.

UCLA at BYU (ABC, 3:30): Both of these teams had their last games given to them: UCLA by Tennessee’s coaches and BYU by moronic Pac-10 refs. It’s BYU’s second and last Pac-10 opponent in their BCS-busting quest. They need this to get out of East Carolina’s shadow.

I just hope UCLA doesn’t get blown out, though it would absolutely confirm the last 0.5% of doubt I have that their win over Tennessee was a complete and total fluke (it was, there’s no denying it).

Oregon at Purdue (ABC, 3:30): The undercard to the epic Big Ten-Pac-showdown later in L.A. Purdue has consistently been beaten by every team they play that has a pulse recently, and Oregon is under-the-radar out West after losing the Dixon/Stewart combo.

Oh the color clash when the Vols and Oregon play a home-and-home...

If I had to pick a favorite Pac-10 team, it would be Oregon. Honestly, it’s the jerseys. Give them credit for being fashionably bold. In all seriousness, the Pac-10 needs somebody to at least come close to USC, and Oregon may be the only hope. So I hope they cream Purdue. Plus I just don’t like the Big Ten.

Wisconsin at Fresno State (ESPN2, 10:30): A big “respect” weekend for the Big Ten, though I see them losing all three of these games. Fresno, like the aforementioned Pirates, has a chance for a second “name” win early in the year, though this would be bigger than either of the Pirates’ wins – not to take anything away from them.

HONORABLE MENTION: ESPN has a high school game tonight between lawvol’s Tar Heels and Rutgers. Cal is off to a fast start, having beaten Michigan State and Washington State on the road 66-3 last week. They now go cross-country to Maryland (ESPN, 12:00). Much in the same realm as Oregon, I hope Cal wins, because the Pac-10 needs some challengers to USC and the Bears and Ducks are the best bets.

And finally, if you want to watch an overhyped game featuring two offensively offensive teams (one of whom lost to Utah and the other who was all but beat by San Diego State), you can watch Michigan at Notre Dame. Neither of these teams win 8 games this year, why the overhyping this meaningless game?

Oh, to be in Section D Saturday afternoon…

Images Courtesy of: Todd Vanemst / AP (Daylife) • Kevin Briody / seattleduck.com