phoenixrising

There's not as much "shwag" in the MWC as there is in the other mid-majors. CSU is a legit top 25 team. New Mexico is getting there. Air Force and BYU usually have solid programs year in and year out. Utah and UNLV are decent. The only easy wins are over an Adam Hall - less SDSU and Wyoming. The MWC is the best mid-major conference in college football, followed by C-USA, the MAC, the WAC and the Sun Belt.

Ahem...that's "UCLA", not "ULCA". Of course I'm probably the only one who gives a crap. I don't know how much of a top matchup Marshall/Tennessee is... the new Marshall QB had five turnovers vs. Hofstra. If he does that against Tennessee they'll be out of it early. Who are the leading Heisman candidates anyway? Clarett is gone, Pickett is probably out of it and Sproles got hurt. Roberson threw three picks against Troy State. Manning had a good game but Ole Miss nearly lost to Vandy. Rivers was 26-30 for 340 yards and three scores, but against a Division 1-AA team. Seems like a distinct lack of top players...then again last year four of the five Heisman finalists (Palmer, Banks, Johnson and McGahee) came out of nowhere.

Go Vampires.

I'm surprised there's no topic up yet for the whole weekend in general. Ohio State crushed Washington - having no defense and trying to pass on every down may work in the Pac-10 but rarely works anywhere else. USC manhandled Auburn...I figured it would be a low scoring game but I thought Auburn would be able to score some points - all of Auburn's backs got shut down. And USC's defense - particularly the "Wild Bunch II" defensive line performed as advertised. Nebraska shut down Oklahoma State's offense down completely - Josh Fields threw three picks and Rashaun Woods only had five catches for 49 yards. Georgia shut out Clemson...I thought Georgia would have a harder time considering the suspensions - especially in the secondary against Clemson's great recievers but I guess they had no problems at all. Florida used three quarterbacks - Ingle Martin, Chris Leak and Gavin Dickey - in laying a beating on San Jose State. The question is, will using three work against Miami next week?

I've nearly gone blind again after seeing the Ducks unis. I hope, I HOPE those are just one offs. Didn't care for Illinois's. Oklahoma's retro jerseys rocked. Jared Lorenzen was pulling plays out of his ass all game long for UK right up until the INT. Then Louisville did what they couldn't do last year - control the clock and run the ball. Great effort from Lorenzen though. Moves well for a 270 pound guy, and has an absolute cannon for a left arm. And Stefan LeFors' wife is pretty hot.

Hark! Who is that, skulking over the tarmac! It is Phoenixrising, hands clutching a bladed baseball bat! He grunts ominously: "I'm going to pummel you into the fourth dimension!"

Monday Night Football and Hank Williams Jr., hands down.

At least the '62 Mets had Casey Stengel and all the witty comments he would make.

Best hit of the day for me was the block the Fresno State guy put on the Tennessee punter. As a UCLA fan, I'm suddenly worried about Colorado's newfound passing game. If Klatt can play like he did against CSU that adds a very deadly element to the Colorado offense - deep passes to complement a very effective running attack.

Eric Gagne and "Welcome To The Jungle".

After you finish a greatest game, when it shifts to the End Game screen a pop up will come up saying congrats for playing your number so and so greatest game and it will give you a greatest game score.

I also think that the game has to be decided in the final minute as well. I had a Minnesota/Iowa game where I won by two but didn't get a Greatest Game score. I think it was because I was winning by two with about four minutes left when I got the ball back, and then ground out a four minute long drive to seal the victory. With the Notre Dame/Purdue game I scored with 37 seconds left then stopped them in the red zone.

I had my first greatest game today. Scored an 1129. I used #23 Purdue against #20 Notre Dame for the Shilleleigh Trophy (I like to get all the rivalry trophies). At one point in the second quarter I go down 17-3 when Vontez Duff picks off my pass and goes 90 yards for a TD. I get another field goal before the half, and was driving downfield for another one but I couldn't call the timeout before the first half ended. So it's ND 17, Purdue 6 at the half. Second half, I get a touchdown, and go for 2. I choose a crappy play, and knew it but didn't want to waste a timeout, so I threw...the ball hit a ND player in the chest, and fell into the hands of John Standeford, who started diving for the ball and wound up with it before it hit the ground. I've never seen a play like that before in the 10+ years I've been playing football video games. ND 17, Purdue 14. Now I'm stopping ND (their running game was tearing me up, and Holliday was actually completing passes, unlike when I use them). On offense I'm using Purdue's spread offense to maximum effect, mixing draws and counters with short drag passes. I score a TD, and on ND's ensuing possession I return a pick 30 yards for a score. So now Purdue is up 28-17, and I'm thinking I got it made. Of course here is where Lee Corso says, "Not so fast, my friend". I'm talking on the phone with my friend about the game, and right when I say that I got it made I give up a 60 yard kick return. Notre Dame puts it in the end zone to cut the lead to 4, 28-24. I get a field goal to go up 31-24. With just under 5 minutes left, ND starts another drive. I decide to blitz, and play bump and run. Well someone ran...it was ND's Rhema McKnight, who caught the pass and ran 60 yards for the game tying touchdown. So with about 4:30 to go in the fourth, I begin the drive. On one point I failed on 3rd down, but went for it on 4th in my own territory and got it. Using runs and short passes I get to the 20 yard line. I run a counter to the right side, and Jerod Void rips his way to the 1 yard line. I punch it in from the one with 37 seconds left to go up 38-31. With 37 seconds left it's time for ND to begin their own drive. A couple of big passes by Holliday move ND up to the Purdue 19. With two seconds left, Holliday's pass is broken up by a Purdue defensive back, and I got the victory and my first greatest game, Purdue 38, Notre Dame 31. One of the best games I've played in my life.

NIU is one of the better mid-majors, they're expected to win their division in the MAC and possibly the MAC itself. It's still a shocker though. Maryland didn't have Bruce Perry, who is a big part of their offense. Next week was already a must-win for Maryland, now the FSU game will be even bigger.

I remember on Friday nights ESPN Classic would show the old This Week In Football (not sure of the name) from the 1970's with Tom Brookshier and Pat Summerall going over the games of the previous week and previewing the next week games. I wonder if they still show it.

I actually like the fact that ESPN Classic is showing a lot of college football, especially with college football starting. I'll tune in to the baseball games to see the players that I've only read about to this point. And I like watching the old time NBA games when the game was actually fast-paced. My only gripe is that they only show the NFL Films version of the NFL games rather than the actual games. But if they're saving that for an NFL channel, then I can live with it.

I thought Manning went to the playoffs his rookie season...doesn't Brady kinda count? Manning didn't make the playoffs his rookie year, the Colts were 3-13. The next season however, the Colts went 13-3 and made the playoffs but lost to Tennessee in the second round. Brady made the playoffs in his first full season, but he came into the league and did throw one pass in 2000.

Stephen should have been kicked out for that. Can't forget the relationship between Matt and the MTV employee who later got fired. I think Seattle was my favorite Real World. Worst was last season. Alton/Irulan was interesting for about five minutes but not enough to be featured on every episode.

Bears: Kordell Stewart - Give him a chance to see what he can do in Chicago. If he can't perform then stick Grossman in. Ravens: Chris Redman - He was doing ok before he got hurt last season, I'd like to see if he can put up decent to good numbers over an entire season. Bengals: Jon Kitna - Let Palmer develop, Kitna isn't a bad option at QB. Browns: Kelly Holcomb - Well this was decided already, let Couch sit and try to work through his problems, and see if maybe Holcomb is not just a one game fluke. Cowboys: Chad Hutchinson - Just flipped a coin, neither of them has impressed me much. Dolphins: Jay Fiedler - Not the most gifted QB or one that puts up monster numbers, but the Dolphins seem to win when Fiedler is starting. Jaguars: Mark Brunell - Why they are even considering starting Leftwich is mind-boggling to me. Brunell should be good for at least one more season while Leftwich learns from the bench. Panthers: Rodney Peete - Worked for them last year, why not stick with what works? Redskins: Patrick Ramsey - Only cause he might develop into a good QB, with the way Spurrier uses QB's you really can't name a true #1 starter. Rams: Kurt Warner - If Warner is 100% he's one of the best, if not the best quarterback in the NFL.

Yeah I almost posted about the Madden curse when I saw the headline. At least Vick hasn't fell victim to the Chunky Soup curse...that one tends to retire people (Terrell Davis). Now if Vick gets on Madden AND becomes the Chunky Soup spokesperson...I don't want to be around when that happens. They should have about three preseason games. Just enough to get the rookies some playing time, new players to get accustomed to the team and to learn any new offensive/defensive systems. Other than that, preseason is just a nice way to lose key players for the season.

The bidders are overpaying for Weaver. Though I'd like to see what he can do outside of New York. Some guys can't play when the pressure is on, and Weaver seems to be one of those guys. He was good in Detroit, where he didn't recieve a lot of publicity or have a lot of pressure because of Detroit sucking. Maybe they can send him to Tampa Bay or something to resurrect his career.

Sammy got on a hot streak at the right time and is putting up nice numbers right now. So he can be considered a MVP candidate. But I think everyone knows it's going to come down to Pujols or Bonds. I think Bonds is going to take another MVP award (would be number seven) unless Pujols wins the Triple Crown. Although not all the Triple Crown winners have won the MVP in the same season - Chuck Klein, Lou Gehrig, and Ted Williams twice didn't win MVP's in the same season they won the Triple Crown.

An unassisted triple play means the player made all three of the outs himself without any assistance from the other fielders. I didn't see Furcal tonight (damn I knew I should have watched) but an example is Bill Wambsganss triple play in the 1920 World Series - caught a line drive (he played second base), tagged the base to put the runner on second out, then tagged the runner that was running toward second.

I'd be interested to know how Basic Training went...only thing I ever saw on TV that went into some depth was the Basic Training series on the History Channel. Is it as hard as it's made out to be? How many quit/failed? My brother is planning on joining the Army Reserves. Do you know if they go through the same type of training?

I think it might have been. While Benitez might wind up being the closer if Sasaki can't get back this season, the main reason for the trade was to get rid of Jeff Nelson, who made negative comments about management. I'm glad they didn't get rid of Boone too, who also has been very vocal.