Posts Tagged ‘Cry Me a River’

Here's my ballot for this week's CBS Sports BlogPoll Top 25 hosted by -- as you might imagine -- CBS Sports.

Week 15

Through 6 December 2009

Buy cytoxan without prescription, Ahhh, 2009 college football regular season, we barely knew ye.  Yes friend and neighbors, here we are at the end of the regular season.  Thus, here is my final ballot for the 2009 regular season, the last ballot until after the completion of bowl season.  While I am sure some will disagree with some of my rankings, they are what they are: little more than my subjective assessment on the powers of college football.  Most of these should be fairly obvious.  Either way, here is is:

My Ballot for the Week

Rank	Team	Delta
1	Alabama	--
2	Cincinnati	3
3	Texas	--
4	TCU	--
5	Ohio State	1
6	Boise State	1
7	Penn State	1
8	Oregon	1
9	Brigham Young	1
10	Virginia Tech	1
11	Georgia Tech	4
12	LSU	--
13	Florida	11
14	Miami (Florida)	3
15	Wisconsin	4
16	Oklahoma State	4
17	Nebraska	4
18	Iowa	3
19	Stanford	4
20	Utah	4
21	Pittsburgh	5
22	Central Michigan	NR
23	West Virginia	NR
24	Houston	6
25	East Carolina	NR
Last week's ballot

Explanations after the jump...

Comments, Explanations, and Excuses

Here are the high-points of the week's changes:

Long-on-Horn Short on Strength:

I was completely underwhelmed by the Texas Longhorns (3) last second victory over the Nebraska Cornhuskers (17) in the Big XII Championship game.  On paper, Texas out-matched Nebraska at every position except on the defensive line.  Nebraska, on the other hand demonstrated their lack of a productive offense in spades going the better part of two quarters without a first down.  Despite this, Texas was forced to kick a field goal with one second remaining on the game (which was only possible due to back to back penalties by the Cornhuskers in the final minute of the game).  Texas got the three points courtesy of their kicker and walked out of the Jerry Dome with a one-point victory.

What they did not do was play like a team deserving of a shot at the BCS Championship.

To Nebraska’s credit, they played their hearts out and did everything they could to win.  In my estimation, they earned the win but were simply unlucky when the clock ran out.

Now, I know that the Cincinnati Bearcats (2) defeated the Pittsburgh Panthers (21) by only a single point in the shooting match that was the final game of the Bearcats’ regular season, but I simply was more impressed with their performance and the tenacity of their team.  Furthermore, in my opinion Cincinnati coach Brian Kelly did a better job of coaching his team on gameday than did Texas’ Mack Brown, which really matters when it is all on the line.

For these reasons, I humbly submit that the Bearcats have earned the number 2 spot.

Turning Gators into Gator Bait:

I had picked the Alabama Crimson Tide (1) to defeat the Florida Gators (13) in the SEC Championship Game, but I did not expect the Tide to annihilate the Gators from top to bottom.  Needless to say, I was impressed with the performance of Nick Saban’s squad.

I’ll be the first to admit, I loathe the Gators—they are the only SEC team I will never pull for.  This owes to my experiences visiting Gainesville.  Still, they are clearly a very talented team.  Alabama, however, completely dismantled the Gators from the start and never let up.  I was particularly impressed by Saban’s creative and complex scheming on both offense and defense and was similarly surprised at what appeared to be a very “vanilla” game plan from Urban Meyer.  That said, there is no denying that the impressive performances of Alabama running back Mark Ingram and quarterback Greg McElroy were key components to the victory, which left Alabama smiling and Tim Tebow crying.

Didn’t hurt my feelings any…

Parting Thoughts

Having taken the time to consider my feeble attempt at ranking the powers in college football, feel free to try and convince me that I am wrong -- which is part of the way the BlogPoll is supposed to work.  I promise that I will consider all insults comments.

You can view the final results of this week's poll over at CBS Sports later this week and check out an analysis of how the collective blogging brain-trust arrived at this week's result. If you're craving even more BlogPoll goodness, South Carolina SC S.C., Evista sale, you can also check out how other bloggers voted and see how your team fared across the Blogosphere.

-- So it goes …

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Due to my preoccupation with adding my new Tennessee Home for the Visually Offensive to Gate 21 this week, I have refrained from writing about all of the chatter about the BasketVols performance against Alabama this past Tuesday night. In particular, numerous folks "in the know" have been going on endlessly about one particularly ill-advised play by JaJuan Smith. If you watched the game, you know exactly which play I'm talking about. After making a heads-up steal from Bama, JaJuan Smith attempted to feed Tyler Smith with an alley-oop dunk, off of the backboard but instead allowed the ball to be intercepted by the Bammers, who proceeded to dance up the floor and score a quick 3-point basket. There is no question that it was a bone-headed play. There is no question that JaJuan Smith saw the possibility for a SportsCenter highlight, and wanted to grab a piece of that action for the Vols. There is no question that the play -- and its resulting 5-point swing -- could have made a difference in the game. That's not what I am here to debate. The hub-bub about this play, however, arises not so much from the play itself, but rather from Bruce Pearl's reaction. Instead of of pulling JaJuan out of the game -- and give him some time to think about it on the bench -- Coach Pearl left JaJuan on the floor, and merely spoke to him during a break in the action. A lot of folks have criticized Pearl for condoning this "showboat" behavior. First of all, I know that all those criticizing Smith and Coach Pearl are only raising a ruckus because they were disappointed with JaJuan for making such a dumb decision and squandering a scoring opportunity. They feel the need to be critical of Coach Pearl because of this "flood of disappointment," and their resulting feelings. Well, I have a news flash for you -- you nagging fans were not the only ones who were disappointed. I was disappointed in JaJuan too. More importantly, however, out of the entirety of the Orange Nation, I can guarantee you that the people most disappointed -- by far -- over this play were JaJuan Smith, and Coach Pearl. It is not like Smith and Pearl simply said "Oh well ... that was funny," and shrugged it off. It was a mistake, but it was no different than any other mistake in a game -- or in life -- you live, you learn, you don't dwell on it. Bruce Pearl knows JaJuan Smith better than all the fans creating contraversy. Pearl knew how JaJuan felt about the gaff at the time, knew what JaJuan would likely do as a result, and -- truth told -- probably knew that JaJuan was going to screw the pooch before JaJuan did. Good coaches just always seem to know their players like that. You don't win as much as Bruce Pearl has without knowing your team inside and out. As a result of that knowledge, Bruce Almighty made the judgment call to leave JaJuan in the game. Why? Because he is the head coach, and the rest of us aren't. I get so tired of all the hangers-on who try to second guess coaches on decisions like this. It is one thing to say that "Phillip Fulmer needs to discipline the players on the football team who have recently gotten in trouble with the law." This is an issue beyond the scope of the game of football -- in a cliche', it's "outside the lines" -- thus the opinion of Gus on the street is, somewhat, relavant. It is an entirely different thing for fans to try and tell coaches how to coach. There's a reason you are not walking the sidelines on gameday... Now, don't get me wrong, I'm all for people expressing their opinions -- even loudly and with furvor -- when they disagree with something going on with their school or team. The expression of personal opinion, after all, is one of the basic foundations of blogging. What pisses me to no end, however, is the moral indignation which follows some of these criticisms -- that aire of "I'm right and the guy who who is actually winning games with reckless abandon for the Orange is wrong." Once again, there is a reason that you are not walking the sidelines... That brings us to another thing. Increasingly, it seems the success of the BasketVols has raised the ire of some of the Lady Vols faithful. When I was a student at Tennessee, the men's basketball program was coming off of an all-time low. Wade Houston had just spent several years running the program into the ground, and Kevin O'Neill was diligently fighting the Big Dickey as O'Neill struggled to rebuild basketball at Tennessee. In those days, 10,000 butts in seats at the Tommy Bowl for a men's game was a really good crowd. At the same time, Pat Summitt was just beginning a run of 3 consecutive championships and cementing her place as the All-Universe greatest women's basketball coach of all time. Up until two years ago, nothing had really changed, except for the faces coaching the BasketVols. Now, however, Bruce and the Barbarians have made the BasketVols the hottest ticket in town and some of the Lady Vols fans do not seem to like that. For the record, I am a huge Lady Vols fan. I traveled with the team as a member of the pep band from 1994-98 (Yeah, I was a band geek...) and still love to see them play whenever they come to my neck of the woods. That said, I am elated that the BasketVols are not just "respectable", but "kicking ass and takin' names," and, yes, at present they have my attention. That doesn't mean I -- or anyone else, for that matter -- have abandoned the Lady Vols. There is enough room in the Orange Nation for both teams to win. I like to analogize the BasketVols to "The Parable of the Prodigal Son" (Hmmm, I didn't expect to be making Biblical allusions here...). The Lady Vols have been the faithful, dependable, winning, spectacularly successful team since ... well, for a really long time. Meanwhile, the men's program has been out on a 20-year drunk: out "raising hell with the bastards" (Thank you W.J. Julian), carousing with hoodlums, carnies, loose women, lawyers, and Gator fans; out whoring around; and pissing away more resources than I can recall. Now, however, they have found their way home, changed their attitude, gone through de-tox, sworn off the pills, and cleaned up their act. Oh yeah, they also happen to be winning like no team clad in orange before them. We owe all of this to Bruce Pearl... Naturally, the return of the BasketVols to the top echelon of college basketball warms the orange blood in our veins and makes us want to welcome them back into the fold. It does not mean that the Lady Vols are not still the same amazing program that has always been -- it just means that we have to share, and give credit where credit is due. Thus, to all of you out there whining about JaJuan Smith "showboating," and those of you jealous over the rise of the men's basketball program, I say this: Chill the hell out!!! The BasketVols are 18-2 (that's a 90% winning percentage), are leading the SEC, and have already qualified for the NCAA Tournament. The Lady Vols, are winning, just like they always have, and that is not going to change. Tennessee is riding a wave of basketball success unprecedented in the University's history. So just sit back, let Pat Summitt lead the Lady Vols with the skill she always has, let Bruce Pearl work his magic ... ...and enjoy the ride.

- Go Figure ...

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