Scary Links

Yeah! Halloween! Woooooooo! Candy! Scantily clad women?....Yeah! Scantily clad women!!!!!

OK, the latest College Football Weekly podcast is up, where I completely dis UConn without even trying.

Fat White Guy has his thoughts on the WVU game....and West Virginians.

The Wire over at WMITC has a scary theme.

Brian is having a crying child contest. Hopefully we won't have any submissions.....hopefully.

Three Idiots have their predictions for the Louisville-Syracuse game up, and a great picture. It's almost over, guys. Then it's peanut butter and jelly time!

And Card Chronicle reminds us what happened last year.




Paul from Georgia Sports Blog has been very nice to link to a certain video I did several times. Glad everyone likes it!

BHGP makes us smile, and spit up coffee on our monitor, and is generally a universal distraction from work. So go be unproductive with us. Unless laughing is how you feel productive.

And then....yeah

How Connecticut is Winning

When I think about Connecticut football, I think about the 2007 season. Nice record, but they never really beat anyone. Yes, they beat South Florida last year. But that was after South Florida turned into a shadow of their former selves. They played Duke, Maine, Temple, and Akron in four of their first five games. They beat a lesser Louisville team with the help of a fake fair catch. I just didn't see anything that impressed me. When they had a chance to make a name for themselves and win the outright Big East title, they got completely smoked by West Virginia 66-21. But they were a young team that was just growing into itself.

Fast forward to 2008 and they beat Hofstra, Temple, Virginia, Baylor, Louisville, and Cincinnati. Not exactly a murders row. They gave one away to Rutgers, and got throttled by North Carolina. Outside of the Cincinnati win, there's nothing impressive to look at. But that Cincinnati game was their last game, and that does concern me. Because up until that game, I thought Cincinnati was going sneak into a BCS berth out of the Big East. Obviously, a lot has changed in the past week.

Any talk about the Huskies success starts with Donald Brown. He leads the nation in yards per carry, yards per game, and is second in total rushing yards. Other than that, they don't stick out in any categories that would lead you to think they are doing something sneaky like not turning the ball over or not being penalized. They're 50th in penalty yards per game, and 37th in turnover margin at +.50. Like West Virginia, they are one of the worst passing teams in D-1. They just run the ball very well, and they do it often.

As I say all this, it is with the understanding that West Virginia hasn't been world beaters outside of the Auburn game. But Connecticut, with their third string quarterback, overpowered what I thought was a tough Cincinnati team. Much in the same fashion West Virginia beat Auburn. Both teams just took over the second half and capitalized on the other teams mistakes. If you believe West Virginia is just now hitting it's stride, you can say the same thing about the Huskies. What to take from all this? Mistakes will be the difference in this game. Turnovers and penalties.....

Marshall...Even When You Win, You Lose

This video is so sick, I won't tell you to watch it. But I know you will....



So now Marshall may be sued because of stupidity. Well it shouldn't be too hard to find the evidence then, huh? HA!

Houston QB Blake Joseph threw deep in the end zone to WR Edwards, causing
him to run and smash his right shin into a band equipment cart. The impact
caused a compound fracture of Edwards' right leg.

The cart had been left a few yards past the out-of-bounds line. It is
not clear why the cart was there in the first place, but is however stirring
speculation that Edwards and his family may file a lawsuit.

Yup, You are...Marshall.

Week 8 Blogpoll Draft Ballot

Rank	Team	Delta
1	Texas	--
2	Alabama	--
3	Penn State	--
4	Georgia	4
5	Oklahoma	1
6	Florida	1
7	Southern Cal	1
8	Texas Tech	2
9	Oklahoma State	2
10	Boise State	3
11	Utah	--
12	Ohio State	--
13	Missouri	5
14	Florida State	11
15	LSU	6
16	Tulsa	2
17	Minnesota	5
18	Ball State	3
19	Michigan State	7
20	North Carolina	6
21	Oregon	5
22	TCU	5
23	Maryland	3
24	Connecticut	2
25	Louisville	1

Dropped Out: Pittsburgh (#15), South Florida (#16), Northwestern (#19), Kansas (#20), Georgia Tech (#23), Boston College (#24).

If you wanted offense, this was the weekend for it! Time is really not on my side this morning. I have Kevin Montgomery playing at my house tonight. He's doing a 50 states in 50 days tour, mainly house concerts. Which is kind of a really cool grass roots way to do things. Check him out with the link above and on his myspace page.

Leave comments if you think I should change something above. I'm very much willing to change something if you think it's out of whack.

So the SEC Officials Kept Auburn in the Game as Long as They Could

But you just can't expect an officiating crew to keep it up for four quarters. And they didn't.

It's probably not fair to say that, because after the first Auburn drive you almost didn't notice the refs. I guess the big problem was with whomever was running the replay booth. That was some serious lack of focus with the "completed pass" and the fumble forward after his knee was down. And if I'm complaining about the officiating, that must mean there was nothing to complain about for my teams efforts.

An apology is owed to you, Bill Stewart. And you, Jeff Mullen. I don't think for a second that any of the defenses we played this year were better than Auburn's. No, this was a lot more to do with what you did. How the team played. The plays you called and when you called them. I would have liked it a whole lot more if we had been playing this way all year. But I'm not going to complain. I'm going to think to myself that the offensive line did it's job better last night than any game this year. Not looking back and saying what if. I'm looking forward and saying, "Wooooo!" You guys, Stewart and Mullen, handled yourself better than most in hard times when we were booing you, so now you get an "ata boy." You can't expect any team to play that good every game, but you've got something to build on, and I would guess, the respect of all West Virginia fans. I would hope so, anyway. You earned it!

Welcome Back West Virginia

Yup, this is the team we were expecting to see this year. Well done!

Photo: ESPN.com

War Damn Eagle Tiger Day

It's game day in Morgantown, and if you're confused like us as to what exactly the Auburn mascot is, maybe this will help. It's like a turducken, but different. It's a War-Damn-Eagle-Tiger. From EDSBS, naturally.

Don't know how or why Chuck Landon is reporting on WVU, but he is. I-formation, baby!!! Wooooo! It's the new spread!

Mountaineer offense ready to have a breakout game? This picture tells that story.

As I said in the comments in the post below this, tonight's game is a good thing. It's a chance to play an OOC program that will make us look good if we win as opposed to the many we have played over the past few years that got nothing more than a shoulder shrugs worth of attention. Sure it isn't being paid the same attention it was before the season started as both teams have lost their way out of the national title hunt. But it's still a big game. Maybe a chance for West Virginia to work their way back into the top 25. A chance to show that the Big East isn't quite dead yet. If nothing else, it's an opportunity to warm yourself with alcohol on a cold fall night and scream your head off. Woooo! I'll drink to that!

Blogpoll Roundtable 4.5

The latest blogpoll roundtable is brought to us by Corn Blight from Corn Nation. For those unfamiliar, the blogpoll is the vision of Brian @ Mgoblog. He's kicked down the main stream media door to have the blogpoll right beside the AP and Coaches poll over at CBS Sports. As an aside, we have roundtable discussions from time to time to put our finger on the pulse of this great game we call college football. Keep an eye on that link to Corn Nation in the comments to see everyone's answers. On to the questions....

1. We’re about half way through the season. Has your team met your expectations, wildly exceeded them, or are you about to light the torches and storm your athletic department demanding blood?

Certainly, my expectations were much higher for West Virginia. I have to admit, that the final prediction I had of 11-2 is still very much possible. But the level of play, especially on offense, has been a disappointment. However, if you told me the defense would be holding opponents to 14.7 points a game I would have asked if I could have a sip of that cool-aid. So in a sense, my expectations have been exceeded and unrealized. Still, the team is undefeated in conference and has just as good a shot as anyone to win the Big East.

2. In an election year, all sorts of promises will be made, few will be kept. What is one promise or item you thought you could count on that hasn’t come to pass yet this season? Is there still a chance?

The promise to attack the middle of the field in the passing game and not a gazillion bubble screens was the promise that excited me the most. It represented an addition to the offense that would seemingly make it more potent. But we aren't passing over the middle, we're bubble screening the shit out of people but not in a good way, and the running game isn't OMG! great this year.

3. Georgia #1... No, USC #1.… No, Oklahoma #1.… No, Texas #1! Who’s the real #1 team, and who do you think will make it to the big BCS National Title game?

A question like this tends to make me think about each teams schedule down the stretch, and that Oklahoma or Texas won't play in the Big 12 championship and we know how that worked out for Georgia last year. But it could very well be that #1 and #2 at the end of the year will both play in the Big 12 south. That's not to take anything away from any of the other teams, but if they end up #1 & #2 are you willing to watch that as your title game? I wouldn't complain because you know it will be a great game. But the Big East has no dog in that fight, so don't pay attention to me. The great thing is that most of those teams have a challenging game this weekend. A thinning of the herd is right around the corner.

4. In only a few weeks, college football fans get to be treated with the obligatory and annual “We Need a Playoff” screaming. Well, you don’t get a playoff, but I’ll let you make one change to the BCS (and no, you can’t cop out and have the BCS commit suicide) to make the world a better place. What is your change?

Add the blogpoll to the point system!!! I don't think I'm great at rankings, but records and margin of victory don't matter as much to me as what I'm able to watch, and given my position here and at AOL I'm exposed to the entire country. We have the advantage of covering our favorite team as little or as much as we want. Unlike reporters that have to report extensively on their beat, we're free to switch between as many games as the coax allows. We also hold grudges and we're biased. But it's one of the few things I put up every single week. I take pride in it and I know the majority of the blogpoll voters do as well. We tell dick jokes and make fun of team x, but this is something I think we as a group are just as capable as anyone else in the equation.

5. Using this year ONLY - no historical references - respond to the statement “The Big 12 is a better conference than the SEC”. There’s nothing sillier than conference wars, but then again, there’s nothing sillier than how SEC fans respond to any challenge to their supremacy. Aim, Fire!

The Big 12 has a historic supply of great quarterbacks this year. Oklahoma St. is the big surprise, but Alabama is the big surprise in the SEC. We thought they would be good, but not like that, Poppy! Top to bottom, I don't see either being measurably better. That's a victory for the Big 12 in a sense. But I can't put the Big 12 past the SEC, because there is defense to go around. Mississippi St. and South Carolina are both top tier defenses and those aren't exactly the big boys of the conference. Oh yeah, Tennessee is like 14th in total D.

Auburn Has a Problem With Thursday Night Games

But not a problem at all mixing the Slim Goodbody/Elvis/Carrot Top look.

I sometimes forget that real football conferences play on Saturday. So it was kind of funny to read that a Thursday night game would cause problems for anyone.

Ever since Auburn lost to Arkansas and headed into its open week with Thursday’s primetime kickoff at West Virginia looming on the horizon, the calendar’s been a bit askew for Tuberville and the Tigers.

“It’s just your consistency of what you normally do,” Tuberville said. “Tuesday was Monday, yesterday was Wednesday, today’s Thursday.
“You try to keep it all the same, but it’s really hard to do that.”

When I read things like that and the rumors about Tuberville having a stroke that he didn't have but felt like he needed to address that and rumors about a pending retirement, I wonder how much attention is being paid to the game. I think we've seen the pitfalls of week night road games over the past couple years. And we're used to it. I can only imagine how it would effect a team that sticks mostly to the Saturday games.

Lots of teams have trouble coming into Morgantown for a Thursday night game. I don't even know the last time we lost one. That first article said something like 1926, but..what? 1926? Fuck me! Joe Paterno was finishing up his law degree in 1926.

Lou Holthz and Mark May will be doing the color analysis and Rece Davis will do the play-by-play this Thursday night. Holthz has put his foot in his mouth the last couple weeks in controlled situations in the studio. So I find it kind of funny that ESPN will now throw him out there on live TV for an entire game. I have no idea what he will say, but you bet your ass I will be recording this one as it could very well be his last appearance on ESPN.

Let's Start This Off Right

We had a long past couple days putting this video together for AOL. If you like Rock n Roll, making fun of the ACC, or a beautiful voice (sarcasm mine), click on that link and enjoy.

OK, so it's Auburn week. Starting it off on Tuesday when the game is on Thursday seems about right to us. We procrastinate on just about everything, but could be talked into timeliness for a pair like that. Sometimes it's impossible to blog from work, like today. So we'll pick this up in the PM. Until then....

Week 8 Blogpoll Ballot Draft

OK, things at the top look to be pretty self explanatory. I'm believing in Texas Tech less and less as the season rolls along. You might not like LSU where I have them, but I'd bet good money on them to beat any team below them in the polls. Tulsa is probably too high, but I think they could hang with most of the teams in their general position. I don't like the way most polls have South Florida above Pitt, so that's how that works. I mean, they did go down and beat the Bulls in Tampa. The bottom three are the token ACC teams that will all lose this weekend to be replaced by three new ACC teams that will follow suit. Song and video depicting the ACC to follow this evening.

Rank	Team	Delta
1	Texas	--
2	Alabama	--
3	Penn State	--
4	Oklahoma	1
5	Florida	1
6	Southern Cal	3
7	Oklahoma State	1
8	Georgia	--
9	LSU	1
10	Texas Tech	3
11	Utah	2
12	Ohio State	3
13	Boise State	3
14	Tulsa	12
15	Pittsburgh	6
16	South Florida	6
17	TCU	9
18	Missouri	6
19	Northwestern	7
20	Kansas	3
21	Ball State	2
22	Minnesota	2
23	Georgia Tech	3
24	Boston College	2
25	Florida State	1

Dropped Out: Brigham Young (#11), North Carolina (#14), Michigan State (#18), Virginia Tech (#19), Wake Forest (#20), Vanderbilt (#25).