Spring college football practices are starting...

[Damaramu 0]

No way SC gets back to that #1 ranking. You don't lose your entire backfield and still compete on the level they did.

[Guest]

They'll be #2. They're really fucking good, just don't have the star quality yet. Plus, they play nobody.

 

My national title game is Notre Dame vs a one loss team, probably Oklahoma or Ohio State.

[Damaramu 0]

Hey OU had a ton of talent last season and we saw how that panned out. I just think that when you have a ton of young talent and you lose the talent that's carried your team you will have disastrous results. OU proved it when they lost White, Clayton, and Bradley even though they still had a ton of talent and I think USC will prove it when they don't have Leinart, Bush, and White.

[Art Sandusky 0]

Fulmer's job at Tennessee isn't in jeopardy yet. Next year maybe, if this season ends up as bad as last year. David Cutcliffe's return will be allowed to pan out for a year first, but I think he can do some miracle work on Erik Ainge and they'll be back in a fairly recgonizable bowl game this year, like the Peach or Cotton. The SEC West is going to be way more interesting than usual, with LSU and Auburn as the clear alpha teams BUT: Arkansas was a very young team last year and they showed a lot of promise. They have nowhere to go but up. The SEC East may be the most loaded division in college football, with Kentucky being the only obvious turkey if Vanderbilt can get close to a .500 season again. I mean, you've got Florida, Georgia, Tennessee, and as much as I hate to admit it, South Carolina in there.

[teke184 0]

They'll be #2. They're really fucking good, just don't have the star quality yet. Plus, they play nobody.

 

My national title game is Notre Dame vs a one loss team, probably Oklahoma or Ohio State.

 

I'd say they don't pull it off...

 

USC may have re-loaded in the RB department (don't know for sure), but their QB situation is tenuous to say the least.

 

 

Mark Sanchez may not be available this season, depending on what happens with his sexual assault case.

 

As far as John David Booty is concerned, his back surgery is strike 1 and the hisorical failures of his fellow Evangel High School players on the college level, including his brothers, is strike 2 IMHO.

 

 

To explain, Evangel is a football powerhouse in northern Louisiana that competes for the 5A title annually. Their top players, such as Josh Booty and Abram Booty of LSU, Phillip Deas of North Carolina, and Brock Berlin of Miami, have gone on to college programs and have either dropped of the face of the Earth (Deas) or flipped out when they come under the slightest bit of pressure (both Booty brothers, Berlin).

 

Part of why their players seem unable to cope on the next level appears to be that they're so used to winning and doing things their way in HS that they can't take it when they start doing badly in college.

 

Josh Booty and Brock Berlin were both known for what I refer to as "Brett Farve syndrome", which is a QB who will attempt to force a pass under any circumstances, ESPECIALLY when under pressure from a good defense, and end up throwing a lot of INTs as a result.

 

 

The perfect example of this would be the Miami-Virginia Tech game from 2003, which ended up being a 31-7 rout for Tech.

 

Berlin was frustrated and forcing passes all night, which resulted in 2 INTs, 1 of which had directly resulted in a TD for Tech.

 

He was eventually pulled from the game for backup Derrick Crudup, who got the team's only TD that night.

 

 

 

That was the start of a downward spiral for Miami that showed a lot of disharmony between the players, including Kellen Winslow Jr's infamous "I'm a fuckin' soldier!" rant as well as several "read between the lines" comments showing a lack of faith in Berlin.

 

 

 

As far as Josh Booty goes, he was distinctly unpopular amongst his LSU teammates, as they wanted Rohan Davie to be the starting QB instead.

 

Josh was also known for changing calls at the line when he shouldn't have, resulting in LSU losing at least two games it shouldn't have. (1 was against Alabama, who is a traditional rival... 1 was against UAB at home, which was a VERY humiliating defeat as they were only in their 2nd season of I-A ball, IIRC.)

 

 

 

While most of this doesn't directly deal with John David Booty, it's an example of how his fellow Evangel players, including his own brothers, have done a lot of things to harm the programs they played in at college.

 

Don't expect him to come in and be the next Carson Palmer or Matt Leinart.

[Urban Warfare 0]

Ivan Maisel's top 5:

1. Ohio State Buckeyes

OK, so only two defensive starters return. When did Jim Tressel not have a defense? And my, oh, my, that offense.

2. Oklahoma Sooners

You've got to be pretty good to go 8-4 while rebuilding. Quarterback Rhett Bomar comes into his own as a sophomore, and junior tailback Adrian Peterson is healthy.

3. West Virginia Mountaineers

If you think the Mountaineers peaked in the Sugar Bowl, then you'll dismiss them. But they've shown what they can do. West Virginia's biggest obstacle is ego expansion.

4. Texas Longhorns

If they had a QB returning from winning a national championship, they'd definitely be No. 1. If they had a QB who had ever taken a snap, maybe.

5. Florida State Seminoles

There's more returning on defense than the loss of seven starters suggests. This is Bobby Bowden's best team since Chris Weinke -- and Mark Richt -- left.

 

Link to rest of the top 25.

 

All Gator bias aside, Florida State isn't a top five team.

[teke184 0]

Fulmer's job at Tennessee isn't in jeopardy yet. Next year maybe, if this season ends up as bad as last year. David Cutcliffe's return will be allowed to pan out for a year first, but I think he can do some miracle work on Erik Ainge and they'll be back in a fairly recgonizable bowl game this year, like the Peach or Cotton. The SEC West is going to be way more interesting than usual, with LSU and Auburn as the clear alpha teams BUT: Arkansas was a very young team last year and they showed a lot of promise. They have nowhere to go but up. The SEC East may be the most loaded division in college football, with Kentucky being the only obvious turkey if Vanderbilt can get close to a .500 season again. I mean, you've got Florida, Georgia, Tennessee, and as much as I hate to admit it, South Carolina in there.

 

Vandy won't be close to .500 this year... Cutler was the heart of that team and I don't see them coming up with another talented QB this soon.

 

If they win more than 3 games, it'll be because their defense, a traditional strength, has carried the load for them.

[Bored 0]

West Virginia definently appears to be this year's Iowa as a team that is overrated after pulling off an upset in a big bowl game.

[Damaramu 0]

Why has every poll I see mentioned Bomar coming into his own or getting ready to take over the offense? He never even reached the 300 yard mark last season. He threw like 10 INTs! I covered spring football for OU and the guy is still as cocky as ever and still thinks he can laser a football straight through a defenders chest. I don't think these guys are looking at the same player.

On top of that everyone keeps saying "Well Peterson is healthy" like Peterson can go undefeated by himself. He was healthy at the beginning of last season and they lost to TCU(granted he sprained his ankle in that game but they were unspectacular to that point). But then again they did win all of their games except one when he returned at near full strength(well they should've won them all but Texas Tech paid the refs or something). But still. I know defenses will load the box for Peterson. Again.

 

But OU seems to have finally shored up it's secondary problems so hopefully that nasty Stoops defense will be back.

[therealworldschampion 0]

It's likely that one would have to give both arms and both legs to go to the PSU-ND game in September. I saw a pair of tickets for sale on eBay which was at $1,600, gonna be a good one.

[Guest]

I don't even want to know how much tickets cost for Ohio State-Michigan or ND-SC.

[therealworldschampion 0]

Actually less expensive for Michigan-OSU and USC-ND than the PSU-ND tickets.

[therealworldschampion 0]

ABC has decided to destroy one of their best college football announcing teams by putting Paul Maguire in with Brad Nessler and Bob Griese. Couldn't they just keep Patrick and Maguire, two of the Three SNF Morons, together instead of wrecking another team?

 

Another alteration to the Musburger drinking game, Jack Arute won't be the sideline reporter for the Saturday night ABC games.

[teke184 0]

ABC has decided to destroy one of their best college football announcing teams by putting Paul Maguire in with Brad Nessler and Bob Griese. Couldn't they just keep Patrick and Maguire, two of the Three SNF Morons, together instead of wrecking another team?

 

Another alteration to the Musburger drinking game, Jack Arute won't be the sideline reporter for the Saturday night ABC games.

 

More reason I'm glad that CBS, ESPN, and Jefferson Pilot have the rights to SEC games...

 

 

I don't like any of the three, with the biggest sore thumb on that team to me being Griese.

 

The reason I dislike Griese so much dealt with him being part of the crew who called the Rose Bowl circa 1997-1998, when when his son was QBing Michigan the year they shared the title with Nebraska.

 

I've never been able to take him seriously after THAT particular lop-sided performance on the mic, with them basically playing up Michigan, tearing down Washington State, and completely ignoring Nebraska.

 

(I had a flashback of that at the beginning of 2004 when they did the same for USC=Michigan in the Rose bowl and intentionally downplayed the LSU-Oklahoma title game in the Sugar Bowl.)

[Bored 0]

More reason I'm glad that CBS, ESPN, and Jefferson Pilot have the rights to SEC games...

Still gonnna have to deal with Mike Patrick doing the primetime SEC games on ESPN.

 

It's such a cliche' to say this about people who have no right to have the job they have but really Paul Maguire has to have photos of someone high up at ABC/ESPN sodomizing a goat. Actually more likely pictures of Chris Berman tea bagging Brett Favre. Also ABC has decided to replace Keith Jackson with...Dan Fouts. So they are going to basically have a two man analyst booth for Pac-10 games.

 

Here's the complete list of broadcast teams per CollegeFootballNews.com. The combo of Reece Davis, Mark May, and Lou Holtz doing the occasional Tuesday/Wednesday ESPN game should, um, interesting.

 

ESPN College Football Thursday

Chris Fowler, Kirk Herbstreit and Erin Andrews

 

ESPN and ESPN 2 College Football Friday

Dave Pasch, Rod Gilmore, Trevor Matich and Alex Flanagan

 

ABC Saturday Afternoon College Football (Noon or 3:30 p.m./EST)

Brad Nessler, Bob Griese, Paul Maguire and Stacey Dales

 

Dan Fouts, Tim Brant and Jack Arute

 

Mark Jones, David Norrie and Samantha Ryan

 

Gary Thorne, Andre Ware and Todd Harris

 

ESPN Saturday Afternoon College Football (Noon EST)

Sean McDonough, Chris Spielman and Rob Stone

 

ESPN 2 Sat. Afternoon College Football (Noon EST)

Pam Ward, Mike Gottfried and Jimmy Dykes

 

ABC Saturday Night College Football (8 p.m./EST)

Brent Musberger, Bob Davie, Kirk Herbstreit and Lisa Salters

 

ESPN Saturday Night College Football (7:45 p.m./EST)

Mike Patrick, Todd Blackledge and Holly Rowe

 

ESPN 2 Sat. Night College Football (7:45 p.m./EST)

Ron Franklin, Ed Cunningham and Jerry Punch

 

ESPN and ESPN 2 Midweek Games

John Saunders, Craig James and Todd Harris

 

ESPN and ESPN 2 Midweek Games

Rece Davis, Mark May, Lou Holtz and Rob Stone

 

ESPN College Football Gameday Studio

Chris Fowler, Kirk Herbstreit and Lee Corso

Desmond Howard, Contributor

 

ABC College Football Studio

John Saunders, Doug Flutie and Craig James

 

CBS College Football Studio

Tim Brando and Spencer Tillman

 

ESPN Day-long Studio and Midnight / EST Studio

Rece Davis, Mark May and Lou Holtz

 

CBS College Football Sat. (Noon and 3:30 p.m. / EST)

Verne Lundquist and Gary Danielson

Craig Bolerjack and Steve Beurlien

[Vern Gagne 0]

Do the networks ever consider bringing in someone new instead of recycling these never were good announcers?

[Damaramu 0]

I wonder who Mark May's favorite team and player will be this year? So we can see him sit there smug all season believing that team and player can do no wrong.

[Guest Princess Leena]

Why the fuck are they moving Maguire to college football? Oy... well, at least I won't be getting most of the Big 10 games, which I guess he'd mostly be doing.

 

ESPN's B-game with Pam Ward and Gottfried... that will be intolerable.

[therealworldschampion 0]

Putting Maguire with Nessler and Greise will have only one redeeming factor, how long it takes for Greise to drop an audible "Will you please shut the fuck up?" on Maguire during a game. I also wonder what exactly Brad Nessler did to piss off the higher-ups at ABC to first lose the lead announcing job for the NBA on ABC, then get passed up for Musburger for Saturday night ABC games, then get stuck with Maguire.

[Vern Gagne 0]

I wonder who Mark May's favorite team and player will be this year? So we can see him sit there smug all season believing that team and player can do no wrong.

 

 

Could very well be Oklahoma.

 

 

I also wonder what exactly Brad Nessler did to piss off the higher-ups at ABC to first lose the lead announcing job for the NBA on ABC, then get passed up for Musburger for Saturday night ABC games, then get stuck with Maguire.

 

I'm convinced Musburger is old friends with the head of ABC sports. That and Nessler's really not that good. Better than Musburger, but that's not saying much.

[Damaramu 0]

I wonder who Mark May's favorite team and player will be this year? So we can see him sit there smug all season believing that team and player can do no wrong.

 

 

Could very well be Oklahoma.

 

 

 

 

Damn. I don't want to hate my own team. Mark May could drive me to hate my own mother.

[Vern Gagne 0]

He was a big fan of Adrian Peterson during his great freshmen season. Don't remember if he pimped him for the Heisman at year.

[Damaramu 0]

http://sports.espn.go.com/ncf/news/story?id=2459865

 

Don't know if anybody really cares but the mother of the dead boy who called "pass right'" for Notre Dame died too.

[Vern Gagne 0]

Sorry to here that. Cliched line coming. She's at least with her son.

 

My opinion of Charlie Weis changed after hearing about this story.

[Art Sandusky 0]

You guys care way too much about shit that doesn't matter. The announcers bug you all that much? Jesus.

[JustJoe2k5 0]

You guys care way too much about shit that doesn't matter. The announcers bug you all that much? Jesus.

 

You've been here since March '02 and you just realized that some people here blow little things WAY out of proportion?

[therealworldschampion 0]

You guys care way too much about shit that doesn't matter. The announcers bug you all that much? Jesus.

 

Did you have to listen to that idiot Maguire the past few seasons on SNF? Most people were probably hoping that he'd never be heard from again after the Three Morons breakup...

 

Anyway, I'm beginning to think that Adrian Peterson is going to have to put together a superhuman-like season to have a shot at the Heisman, considering that the media has already kicked off the Quinn For Heisman campaign.

[CanadianChris 0]

Anyway, I'm beginning to think that Adrian Peterson is going to have to put together a superhuman-like season to have a shot at the Heisman, considering that the media has already kicked off the Quinn For Heisman campaign.

Based on what I've seen of him the past two years, I think that's entirely possible. Preseason Heisman campaigns don't mean shit anyway.

[Damaramu 0]

Peterson's problem is going to be relying on an inexperienced offensive line, defenses keying on him, and relying on Rhett Bomar to relieve pressure on him.

The last one is the most iffy.

[therealworldschampion 0]

Anyway, I'm beginning to think that Adrian Peterson is going to have to put together a superhuman-like season to have a shot at the Heisman, considering that the media has already kicked off the Quinn For Heisman campaign.

Based on what I've seen of him the past two years, I think that's entirely possible. Preseason Heisman campaigns don't mean shit anyway.

 

Herein lies the problem though. Oklahoma is probably going to be seen on national TV maybe 3-4 times at the most (Oregon, Texas, and the Big 12 title game if they get there), while every one of Notre Dame's games is going to be on national TV, not to mention the fact that Quinn will be getting tons of pub from the national media throughout the season (ESPN, ABC, NBC, you name it, Dama if you thought Leinart and Bush's coverage was bad, wait until next year if Quinn is having a great year and ND is undefeated). I don't doubt Peterson's ability to put up gigantic numbers, but if Notre Dame goes 12-0 or 11-1 and Quinn has a great year, it'll be tough to beat him for the Heisman.