Football talk

OK . . . This continues on a discussion from a below post, but I thought I would make it another post on the main page. Ohio St. beats Michigan four of five years - that demands a front page story. Go Bucks! What a great weekend. And the Browns pitch a shutout? You've got to be kidding me. Someone wake me up. Here is my reply to you Brian:

I have to say there is nothing greater than beating Michigan . . . ahhh . . . thanks for the props. Also, I appreciate your comment about the Harvard - Yale game. That is one of college athletics' neatest contests. Did you see the game this year? It was on WGN. It went to triple overtime. Great finish.

Also, I understand your confusion on the regional broadcasts. ESPN was going crazy with their regional coverage - I saw like ten different lines across the bottom and couldn't keep up with what games were going on where and such.

And as for Miami, what in the world happened? I watched the second half of the game and couldn't believe it. I thought Miami was a little overrated because their offense has been so anemic, but then they went to Blacksburg, and I thought, maybe they're for real. Now, I'm not sure what to think of them. That was a bad game - in the Orange Bowl even. Wow. They stayed in the top ten though.

Did you happen to stay up and watch USC and Fresno St. It wasn't over until 2:30 Sunday morning, but I thought I'd try to overcome my "East coast bias" and check one of their games out. Here are my observations:

1 - Reggie Bush is the best college football player I have ever seen. Period. Now, I'm not that old, so I'm not about to make comparisons to players from further back (Hershel Walker, from what I've heard was quite the player). And I have seen some amazing players before. But I have never seen anyone like him before. He had over 500 yards of total offense. 500! I know Fresno St. isn't exactly the Steel Curtain of defenses, but that's ridiculous. Every time he touched the ball I really thought he was going to score. He should be a shoe-in for the Heisman.
2 - USC is not the best team in the country. If they played in the Big Ten, SEC, or the ACC they would have one, probably even two losses. In the SEC, they would really struggle because the play defense there this year (the Big Ten and ACC haven't been as "defenseive" this year. They gave up 42 points to Fresno St. Fresno is an up-an-coming program, and they always put a respectable program out there, but 42 points? If you watched the game you know that they really deserved a better fate. Their quarterback threw two interceptions right to USC players (one went back for a TD), and they had two untimely fumbles. Take those out of the equation and USC loses. Put them up against those other conferences with better defenses and I don't think Reggie Bush could have those yards, and Matt Leinart got eaten up pretty good by Fresno St.'s front four. Imagine what some of those other schools would do to them. Give me a break. My east coast bias wasn't broken, but rather confirmed. The Pac 10 plays no defense. The Big Ten hasn't exactly been lights out in the defense mode, but Penn St. and Ohio St. have two of the best in the country and I just can't see USC winning those games week in and week out.


So anyway . . . Ohio St.'s season is over, until the bowl. If they don't make it to a BCS bowl game it will be the shaft of the year. Because of the stupid way they have it set up, it looks like either West Virginia or South Florida (yeah, South Florida, give me a break) will get an automatic bid from the Big East. If South Florida goes and a high profile school (like Ohio St., Virginia Tech, Miami) get left out, I think that will mandate some changes next year. That just can't happen.
OK . . . enough college football ramblings.