iggymcfly

We aren't on scholarship at a public university and serving as one of its most visible faces. I don't hold athletes to any higher standard than I hold anyone else. Scholarship athletes? Yes. That's a fantastic opportunity and someone who fucks it up so regularly doesn't deserve it. Do you realize what a bad argument you're making here? You're basically saying that Marcus Vick should make sure to avoid all the pitfalls that a normal college student would fall into out of gratitude to the Virginia Polytechnic Institute for giving him such a great opportunity to get an athletic scholarship. The thing is that this opportunity is nothing to Marcus Vick. He's not going to use the degree he gets from Virginia Tech, he's going to play professional football. Now if you were talking about the backup long-snapper who was going to be the first person from his family to graduate, and would get to pursue his dream of being an engineer due to his football, then I could see your point. But Marcus Vick? Hells no. He and the university are in a use-use relationship. He uses Va. Tech to showcase his football skills so that he can get a job in the NFL, and Va. Tech uses him to sell tickets and win games. Also, Vick knows that at this point, he's going to the NFL regardless of whether he plays another down for the Hokies or not. Now, is this really a situation where Vick can't stand to fuck up such a "fantastic opportunity"? Of course not. The university's reached a point where the benefits of keeping Vick to sell tickets and win games outweigh the PR costs, so the two have parted ways. Period. End of story. Making it into some battle of good and evil where selfish, lazy Marcus Vick flushed away the best thing to ever come into his life is just downright silly.

It's not that you can't run. It's that when you play 8 on 8, passing is so easy that there's no point running. If you can score rushing TDs on 5 out of 9 possessions and set up a FG on two more, you'll lose 52-41.

Iggymcfly = white. Iggymcfly doesn't give a flying fuck if Marcus Vick got a speeding ticket while driving with a suspended license. Iggymcfly doesn't think stepping on a defensive lineman's leg is a big deal, even if he was pissed off about what he thought was a late hit for a second or two. I mean honestly, why do we have to hold every athlete to an unrealistic standard. I bet a lot of people on this board have had a joint every now and then, and given drinks to 16 year olds (not fucked them, just given them drinks), and got speeding tickets, and done all the other minor things that Marcus Vick got busted for. I mean just because he made a couple minor mistakes when he was young doesn't mean he won't be a good football player. I'm sure that three or four years from now, when lil' Vick actually gets to play, the team that drafted him won't be made fun of for drafting such a "hooligan", they'll just be noticed for how much better they're playing than if they drafted somebody like Chris Leak or Reggie McNeal instead. These off-field isues are such non-issues that no one will believe that anyone ever cared about them five years from now.

There's way too much backlash against Cena for the fans to start cheering him again before he drops the title, no matter what he does. I say at this point, they might as well have him do a double turn with HHH, then keep his whiny face character going for a few months before he eventually starts getting his edge back and becomes a face again. I mean, "you might have to turn him again in 6 months" is a terrible reason to make someone who's getting booed be your babyface champion or a year. Rock turned a bunch of times when he was starting out, and he became one of the most popular wrestlers in history. If Vince just kept pushing Rock as a face champion for a year after the "Rocky sucks" and "Die Rocky die" chants started, do you think he would have gotten as popular as he did?

It's certainly not out of the question that he could have made the difference. I really think the play-calling on that series was terrible, going run up the middle, pass, run up the middle, run up the middle, as you short yourself a down where your pounding it, and then when you have long yardage to go, you don't get any of your other weapons involved. At the very least, they should have had Bush in on third down, as when you're going to run for it on a 3rd and 7, you probably don't want the guy who's averaging 7.5 ypc on the sideline.

I bet on Louisville that game, so I had every reason to be partial, but I still didn't think Vick should have been tossed. It just didn't look that flagrant to me, and I'm not even sure it was completely intentional looking at the replays, (although Vick's apology might lend itself to that conclusion). However, if Louisville hadn't choked, and had picked up a good win against Virginia Tech, they'd be ranked significantly higher. Off hand, I'd say anywhere between 13 and 16; definitely ahead of Virginia Tech and UCLA, with Miami, Oregon, and Florida State being question marks.

Since 1997, has Rey ever even come close to having a legit match of the year?? I guess your only hope is fish-oil pills. I hear they swell heads. The Mysterio/Guerrero matches from 6/23 and GAB were the only WWE matches of 2005 even worthy of having MOTY spoken in the same sentence as them. Not true. He had some really good tag matches, working with Edge during the Smackdown Six era and continuing all the way to the Vengeance match against Kidman and....... somebody else the following year. Singles matches though, I'd agree. As for next year's MOTY, I'd say go out on a limb and say RVD vs. Angle in an ECW rules match on Raw for the WWE Title.

Cena's terribly terribly boring. He gets reactions from eleven year old girls, but people who actually like entertaining wrestlers have just stopped following the product altogether. At this point, I'd take HHH getting a face run with the belt over more Cena.

Didn't ABC get a Super Bowl or two during that time period? Because if USC and Texas got better ratings than the Super Bowl, then I'm really impressed.

It's a little too late now, but I sure wish I'd bet on the Illini tonight. Michigan State's 1-1 away from East Lansing, and I knew they were gonna get beat down tonight. I guess down 7 at the half's not too bad, but Illinois's going to pull away, I know it.

People act like Young's still playing in his sophomore form, (Run first, run second, pass occasionally to keep the defense honest.), and he's just not. Here are Vince Young's passing stats this season: 212-365 for 3036 yards with 26 TDs and 10 INTs. That's good for 9.34 yards per attempt and a 65% completion percentage. There's a reason that I compared him to Donovan McNabb and not to Michael Vick. Even after five years in the NFL, Vick still hasn't mastered the passing game, but Young's got it down now. I mean he was second in the nation in passing efficiency, ahead of that Leinart fellow who's got Smith, Jarrett, and Bush to throw to. Even if he only runs 5 or 6 plays a game for 50 yards or so, his arm's what's going to carry a team to victory. (And don't say he won't be able to run for 50 yards, Vick goes into triple digits all the time whn he's not worried about getting hurt.)

If Vince Young isn't a Top 5 draft pick (assuming he comes out this year), I'll fly to Los Angeles and suck Bill Plaschke's cock myself. If I were the Jets GM, I'd be doing everything I could to trade up and get Vince Young with the top pick. He's like Donovan McNabb if he got better under pressure instead of worse, and had just a little more raw talent. The Texans don't really need a QB, so they can just trade down as far as they can safely go and still get Lutusi, while I can see the Saints taking Bush in the #2 spot. I'm sure Leinart will go way higher than his talent justifies, but if you go on the Orange Bowl last year and the Rose Bowl this year, maybe he'll do all right.

I'm fundamentally opposed to putting LSU over Georgia. Both teams had two losses during the regular season with both of Georgia's losses coming with Shockley either out, or at less than 100%. Then, the SEC Championship comes, and Georgia beats LSU 34-14. Not 34-31, not 21-20, 34-14. There was a game to determine which team was better and Georgia won it definitively. If Georgia hadn't beaten LSU that way, then they could have gotten fat on Miami, but they shouldn't be punished for winning that game. If you want to put Notre Dame down at #8 below Georgia and LSU, I'm fine with that, but I really think the Irish are a little bit better. Put Notre Dame on either side of the Sugar Bowl, and I think they go 10-2. As for Louisville, come on now. Here are their results away from Papa John's Stadium: at Kentucky W 31-24 at S. Florida L 45-14 at West Virginia L 46-44 at Cincinnatti W 46-22 at UConn W 30-20 vs. Va. Tech L 35-24 Now, tell me that looks like a Top 15 team. And their best home win was over Rutgers, so it's not like they were world-beaters there either. Yes, they're really good at blowing out bad teams when they play at home, but that's not enough to be an upper-tier, elite level program. I kept them in the Top 25 because of their talent, but until they do something against somebody with a pulse, they really don't deserve to go much higher.

1. Texas (13-0) - The Texas Longhorns are the undefeated, undisputed champions of the world. They went into Pasadena and they just outscored the defending national champion Trojans. A lot of people thought that the Longhorns' defense woud have to make the difference for Texas to win, but they just went score for score with the champs. In the end, Vince Young just ran too fast and threw too well for Leinart, Bush, and Co. to keep up. Tremendous win to cap a tremendous season for Texas. 2. USC (12-1) - No way that the Trojans can possibly fall further than this. They were one or two coaching decisions away from being crowned "best team in the history of college football" by the national media. If they give Bush the ball on the last third down, or run play action on fourth down, or maybe if Bush runs upfield instead of going to the sideline with 0:08 to go, we might be looking at a three-time champion right now. As it is, the Trojans will have to settle into their place in history alongside the 2002 Miami squad, as a great team that just didn't quite get it done when it mattered most. 3. Ohio State (10-2) - Yes, they lost to Penn State with the conference title on the line, but that doesn't mean they're not the third best team in the country. They lost to Penn State because they were on the road, the same reason Penn State lost to Michigan. The loss to Texas is also a non-issue, as there's no one in the country that could stop this Longhorn team. After watching the Buckeyes pick apart Notre Dame while Penn State struggled with FSU, deep down I just know that Ohio State's the better team at the end of the year. 4. Penn State (11-1) - Now, despite the the slight of dropping them a spot at the end of the year, I'm not trying to take anything away from Penn State's run this year. It was incredible. A Nittany Lion team that was supposed to do nothing at all blew through their schedule, and were 0:02 against Michigan away from going 12-0. The fact is that Penn State passed every test this year, and accomplished more than they could possibly be expected to. Great year for JoePa's crew. 5. West Virginia (11-1) - The Mountaineers were disrespected all year, but they came up huge when it mattered most. They came back from a big 4th quarter deficit to beat Louisville with the Big East on the line, and then they ran all over an elite Georgia team. West Virginia not only won respect for their program with that win, but may have saved their entire conference from being relegated to the ranks of mid-majors. When your looking at what a team's accomplished in a year, winning the Big East, and then winning the Sugar Bowl has to be right up there near the top. 6. Notre Dame (9-3) - This may look a little high after watching what the Buckeyes did to ND in the Fiesta Bowl, and seeing USC's aura of invincibility get crushed in the Rose Bowl. However, every upper echelon team has two goals for the regular season. Get to a BCS bowl, and win the national title. If they can't do the second, then the first is the most they can hope to get out of the regular season. Notre Dame got the job done there, going through a very tough schedule to end up with nine wins, and they were still one close call away from a Fiesta Bowl victory. The fact of the matter is, there are only two teams that in the nation that could beat OSU at a neutral site, and they were deciding something a little more important on Jan. 4. 7. Georgia (10-3) - Okay, so the Bulldogs didn't look very good in the Sugar Bowl, getting embarrassed in their home state. However, if they hadn't solidly beaten LSU with the conference on the line, they never would have gotten that opportunity. If I'm Mark Richt, I take a Sugar Bowl loss over a Peach Bowl win every day. Also, it's not like WVU was that much more talented than Georgia; the Dawgs just overlooked their opponents and came out a little flat. The BCS bowls are a showcase, and earning the right to play in that showcase is more crucial than coming out a little rusty when you get there. 8. LSU (11-2) - LSU may not have accomplished everything they wanted to this year, but that doesn't mean that they don't have scary talent. The Tigers absolutely destroyed a highly ranked Miami team in the Peach Bowl, and have every reason to look forward to next year. Not only does Matt Flynn look as if he might take JaMarcus Russell's job next year, he looks like he could lead LSU to the Fiesta Bowl. Great finish to the season for the Tigers. 9. Virginia Tech (11-2) - The Hokies may have lost their undefeated season against Miami, and their conference crown against Florida State, but they were still the best team in the ACC, as they blew through most of the competition en route to a 7-2 conference record. If that's not enough, they also have a road win over Sugar Bowl champ West Virginia, and a Gator Bowl win over Louisville to keep them warm through the off-season. The Hokies still have an elite program, and definitely have the kind of talent that you wouldn't want to face in a playoff. 10. Alabama (10-2) - The final rankings are about what a team accomplished throughout the entire season. Well for half of the season, Alabama was the third best team in college football. Their defense was the best in the country, and their offense was still relatively explosive behind Brodie Croyle and Tyrone Prothro. Unfortunately, Prothro went down for the season, and with him Alabama's SEC title hopes went downhill as well. However, that defense was still more than enough to completely shut down an explosive Texas Tech team holding them to just 10 points in a Cotton Bowl victory. Definitely a Top 10 year for the Tide. 11. Wisconsin (10-3) - Wisconsin played a very tough schedule this year, and still managed to send off Barry Alvarez with a ten win season. The Badgers picked up huge regular season wins over Michigan and Minnesota, and then finished off the season with a dominating victory over the Auburn Tigers. The Badgers were a couple wins short of elite status this year, but their Capital One Bowl victory shows that they are still a very good football program. 12. Auburn (9-3) - The Tigers both started and ended the season with disappointing losses (to Ga. Tech and Wisconsin respectively). However, in between those games the Tigers played some of the best football in the country. They beat the SEC Champion Bulldogs with DJ Shockley in the lineup, and then followed that up with a win over Alabama as well. Take out a missed FG against LSU and Auburn might have been playing in the Sugar Bowl. While not consistent enough to crack the Top Ten, the Auburn Tigers definitely showed flashes of brilliance during a very good 2005 season. 13. Florida (9-3) - Expectations were sky-high for the Florida Gators coming off the hiring of Urban Meyer as head coach. It seemed that pretty much anything less than an SEC Title would be a disappointment for the mighty Gators this year. While they didn't quite reach that goal, they have plenty of reasons to be optimistic for the future. Their wins were as impressive as any team in the nation's as they defeated both SEC Champion Georgia and ACC Champion Florida State in the same year, the latter being by a huge margin. The Outback Bowl may not be where Gator Nation wanted to end up this year, but the win there is something that Meyer can build on, and the Florida program should be back to contending for national titles in the near future. 14. Florida State (8-5) - Consistency was a huge issue for the Seminoles this year, as they lost games to the likes of Virginia, NC State, and Clemson. Yet in really big games, Florida State's talent still shone through. Season opening clash with Miami to establish dominance in the ACC? Win. Battle with BC for the Atlantic title? Win. ACC Title game with Virginia Tech? Win. Sugar Bowl against #4 Penn State? One missed FG away from victory. The Seminoles got the job done in big games this year, and had about as good of a five-loss season as any team could possibly have. 15. Oregon (10-2) - A ten win season's a ten win season, even if the competition is somewhat mediocre. The loss to Oklahoma was disappointing and will cast some of the Ducks' accomplishments in a rather unflattering light. However, the Sooners were the worst possible matchup for Oregon and their weak front four. Against another mid-level opponent, the Ducks could have easily finished the year 11-1. 16. Miami (9-3) - The vaunted Miami defense that looked so dominant against the Hokies earlier in the year looked absolutely lost in a 40-3 Peach Bowl loss to LSU. If you don't think the bowl game mattered or if you don't think this year was really a failure for Miami, just ask Larry Coker. The man fired nearly his entire staff after the loss, as the Canes were absolutely embarrassed. The Canes still have the building blocks for a big year, but until they can come up with a big win without the stigma of being an underdog, they will not return to their previous level of prominence. 17. UCLA (10-2) - UCLA also had a ten-win season in 2005, defeating Oklahoma and Cal along the way, before finishing up with a Sun Bowl victory over Northwestern. While they played very well for the balance of the year, the black marks on their season were so black that they can't be ignored. When most of your wins come by 3 or 4 points, and your losses come by 45 and 48, you just have to say that the team overachieved and leave it at that. UCLA did all they could with their talent, but against a tougher schedule, they might have been exposed much further. 18. TCU (11-1) - The Horned Frogs accomplished about as much as they possibly could this year. They beat Oklahoma in the opener, went undefeated through MWC play, and then beat a very good Iowa State team in the Houston Bowl. They were a letdown game against SMU away from being undefeated, and finished with a much better year than most of the BCS teams they're not supposed to compete with. When wondering why TCU isn't higher however, remember this. The worst bad loss for the other "top" programs doesn't approach the quality of the SMU loss. If TCU faced the kind of opposition week in and weak out where a "letdown" game was NC State or even Stanford, their results might not have been as good. 19. Oklahoma (8-4) - After a start that looked like it could lead to the most disappointing season in recent Sooner history, Oklahoma rebounded nicely, and ended up one bad call away from finishing the season on a seven game winning streak. The wins at Kansas and Nebraska look much better in hindsight, and the Holiday Bowl victory over Oregon was a great capper to the season. With Vince Young likely going to the NFL, Oklahoma may be the favorite to pick up another Big XII title in 2006. 20. Boston College (9-3) - The Eagles didn't have a big year, but they steadily and consistently pounded out a solid season. Coming from a very down Big East, there was a question if BC would be able to compete with the traditional ACC powers. They answered that question with a resounding yes, finishing one loss away from qualifying for the ACC title game, and then defeating a game Boise State team in the MPC Computers Bowl. 21. Michigan (7-5) - The faithful followers of the Maize and Blue won't want any positive spin on the school's first five loss season since 1984. However, there are many positives to look at here. The Wolverines defeated #4 Penn State, and were one of the most feared teams in the Big Ten when Mike Hart was healthy. They have many of the pieces coming back next year, and have more than enough talent to reach the Rose Bowl. Given all the things that went wrong this year from injuries to officiating, it seems likely that this will be remembered as one bad fluke season, not the start of a steady decline. 22. Texas Tech (9-3) - The Red Raiders didn't play the toughest schedule this year, but they did have a very successful season by and large. They finally established themselves as one of the top programs in the Big XII, finishing second in a conference that wasn't anywhere near as bad as it appeared early in the year. Mike Leach's program is slowly moving forward, and may challenge the Texas's and Oklahoma's of the world for the conference crown some time in the near future. 23. Clemson (8-4) - The Clemson Tigers finish 2005 on a roll, winning their last three games against Florida State, South Carolina, and Colorado. An upset, a rivalry win, and a bowl win, should be enough to keep the alumni happy, and the football program will have plenty of momentum and confidence going into 2006. 24. Nebraska (8-4) - The Huskers redeemed a disappointing season in the Big XII with a huge Alamo Bowl victory over classic power Michigan. Perhaps most importantly, this will buy Bill Callahan some time with Lincoln fans to allow him to rebuild the program. When you're changing 100 years of history, turning a Wishbone offense into a spread passing game, you're not going to be conference champions overnight. However, the Huskers definitely look to be on the right track for the future. 25. Louisville (9-3) - The Cardinals had all the talent in the world, but just couldn't come through in big games this year. They blew 14 point leads not once, but twice in the fourth quarter. You could see all the pieces for an undefeated run this year, but when Rutgers is the only bowl team you beat all season, it's hard to be overly effusive with the praise.

No final rankings? Come on. The world has to know if Georgia Tech passed Ohio State to finish the season at #7.

What the fuck! Run it on 3rd and 7, and then again on 4th and 2 with a 5 point lead? Carroll's lost his mind!

This should be Keith Jackson's swan song. He can't keep track of what's going on at all. He made mistake #29 tonight saying someone called a timeout when it was obvious that the third quarter had run out.

You know, in retrospect, I really think VY might have deserved the Heisman over Bush.

LenDale White's got it all! Beautiful TD there. I really think USC's got the most dominan offensive line I've ever seen. At least since the mid-90s Huskers.

I still think USC's gonna take this. Texas got all the breaks in the first half, and USC's still only down 6. They've been a second half team all year, so there's no reason to think any different here. In order to win, however, USC needs to run the football. LenDale White can get 5 or 6 yards up the middle all day long, and used sparingly, Bush can get to the outside as well. When they spread it out with four or five receivers, though, they're just giving Texas the green light to tee off on Leinart. When Texas knows USC's passing, their defense is more than good enough to shut them down.

I was initially thinking USC, and then all this disrespect for Texas almost had me thinking Texas would win the game. One thing stopped me short in my tracks however. Mack Brown. He's a notorious big-game choker, and there's no way he gets Texas up to take on the mighty Trojans. I remember an interview a few weeks ago where he said that he'd been been voting USC #1 all year himself. When he needs to play us-against-the-world, and tell Texas how the whole country is disbelieving their talent, he's disbelieving their talent himself. I remember a similar comment from Coach K two years ago before Duke played UConn in the Final Four. The Blue Devils should have easily been the favorite as the #1 team in the nation at the end of the season, but UConn was still a 2 1/2 point favorite. Coach K basically said "UConn's the best team in the country and we just hope we can play with them," and then at the end the Blue Devils came up just short. So let's see, the spread for USC/Texas is 7? I say my final, final prediction is: USC 38 Texas 32 as Texas delights and angers gamblers everywhere by tackling Lendale White for a safety with 0:21 remaining.

Somebpody mentioned the CFN quote earlier, but it's so good that I have to post it in its entirety.

There was a neat article on ESPN.com showing 40 reasons why USC will win and 40 reasons why Texas will win. However, even in the Texas list, they had to show us what they really thought at the end. 1. Everything's bigger in Texas. Even unrealistic optimism.

I love looking at the standings for the 16-team Big East, and seeing UConn at the very bottom. Priceless.

All right, first off, let me say that Billy does come off as really bitter and unjustified in the video. He's mad that he didn't get a better push so he's blaming everything on HHH and giving him way more credit for his (Gunn's) problems than he's really due. However, with that being said, I think the WWE really missed the boat on Billy Gunn. The Assman gimmick was over really solidly as an upper midcard heel before he got hurt. He was at least as over as someone like Eddie Guerrero at the time and probably moreso. So, he comes back from injury, and they promptly replace his cocky heel gimmick with........nothing. That's right, he loses his gimmick to Right to Censor in his first match back, and then has no gimmick whatsoever for months. After that, he does the gay gimmick with Chuck. Despite the fact that gay tag teams haven't really gotten over since the 70s, he manages to make it very entertaining and they become the premier heel tag team in the WWE. And not in the sense of today's tag teams where they're just the only ones around; Chuck and Billy were actually really entertaining. So finally, that runs its course, and what happens? The gay tag team manages to turn face. And everybody loves it! After the gay wedding, Billy and Chuck had tons of face heat, and they're match against 3MW was probably the second most anticipated on the Summerslam card. So what do they do then with Billy and Chuck, now that they're hugely over as faces. Oh, they just take them off TV for a couple months until everyone loses interest in them. Then, they make half-assed attempts to put Billy Gunn into tag teams with random wrestlers and wonder why he's not "over" any more. I mean really, for as successful and popular as he was, Billy Gunn really didn't get a decent push at all.