Stay up late watching the bowl game? Grab a cup of coffee and dig in.
- Nick Saban has been berry, berry good to the Alabama athletic department coffers.
- To the surprise of probably no one, Reshad Jones confirms he’s leaving early for the NFL draft.
- The Greatest Backup Quarterback of Our Era is tanned, rested and ready.
- ESPN is gonna get 3-D on our asses.
- The WWL takes more criticism regarding its journalistic ethics. Seriously, who sees what ESPN provides as journalism these days, anyway? Remember what the “E” in “ESPN” stands for…
- Politics and football alert #1: Somehow, I suspect this ad isn’t going to be greeted as warmly in Ft. Worth today as it might have been a few days ago.
- Politics and football alert #2: It looks like Congress is getting back in the long distance diagnosis business again. That worked spectacularly with Terri Schiavo.
- And speaking of Mike Leach, as rumors go, stranger things have happened than this.
- College football head coach waits until end of NFL season, hires NFL assistant as new defensive coordinator. That’s in Charlottesville, Virginia, not Athens, Georgia, though.
Get The Picture 
Dear TCU and Cincy:
Watch a tape of Georgia/Hawai’i. Then watch it again.
The next time you think you’ve been snubbed by the BCS, go out and do what Georgia did. Until then, talk is talk.
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Apparently their copies got switched with BSU/Oklahoma and Utah/Alabama.
*****
The seniors (four year version) on this BSU team have lost precisely 2 regular season games and 2 bowl games. they have also turned in 2 perfect seasons finished off with 2BCS Bowl game wins. People who like the old boys’ club that is the BCS will find ways to continue to disparaged what BSU does. Nothing will change the minds of those people.
Had TCU won this game, like Utah the year before, they likely would have finished the season ranked #2 in the final polls. Why BSU, with the same record, shouldn’t be considered the #2 team in the country (if not the #1) boils down to nothing more than bias and football snobbery
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Maybe Boise should step out of conference and play an SEC team on the road in August.
Wait a second….
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Yeah. I still don’t take Boise seriously because of that epic pants-pooping. Additionally, their signature BCS wins came against…
– TCU
– A strenuously average Oklahoma team that backed into the B12CG because Colt McCoy got hurt down the stretch
As good as that BSU/OU Fiesta Bowl game was, it’s sullied when people overrate the hell out of that OU team. David vs. Goliath that was not.
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Ari Fleischer’s masters couldn’t have written it better. Guys saying that all BSU can claim is beating TCU, another non-AQ team, is EXACTLY why the BCS put TCU and BSU together in this game. By playing each other the anti non-AQ/pro-BCS crowd could always say that the winner didn’t beat a team that was all that good anyway.
Split up BSU and TCU and if one or both of them won their bowl game they would have beaten a BCS conference champ…the BCS couldn’t stomach that so they delegitimized both outsiders by not giving them a chance to prove their detractors wrong.
It was a rigged system.
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Gotta say…that’s a pretty valid point
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Eh, I actually see your point.
But, see….I’d take the Smurfs a lot more seriously if the lone true road gauntlet in their Glory Era wasn’t a complete depantsing in Athens. Wanna know why no one really considers Gonzaga a mid-major anymore? Because they up and play people.
The home win over schizo Oregon was nice and a start, but it isn’t enough. Not yet.
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Basketball, with 30 or so dates and where undefeated is the rarest of things, isn’t an apples to apples comparisson. And, BTW, we only know of Gonzaga because of what they accomplished in that thing that basketball teams play after their regular season that shall not be spoken kindly of ’round these parts…
BSU has been playing Oregon and Ore. State pretty regularly for the last decade. They have played one or the other almost every year and BSU has a winning record while doing so.
As for the UGa game…it happens. I don’t believe that was BSU’s best team (that year’s version) but one drubbing isn’t the true mark of a program. Since that season Boise is 4-1 versus BCS conference teams. Wins over Ore. State, Oklahoma, and Oregon twice…losing to Washington…plus splitting two games with non-BCS though legit opponent TCU)
Two years ago Alabama lost to ULM…that in no way delegitimizes what they are as a team today.
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If not the #1?
I’d love to hear your justification for ranking an undefeated Boise State ahead of an undefeated Alabama.
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It’d ultimately have to start with Oregon > Florida, which, um, no.
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Playing devil’s advocate, BSU won 14 games and is undefeated. That has only happened once before in NCAA D-IA history–when Ohio State did it in 2002. Ohio State was proclaimed MNC that year. BSU also defeated the #4 team in the country (TCU). BSU also won its conference and defeated the conference champions of 2 other conferences. All they can do is win all their games, which is exactly what they did. I point to the ’66 Bama team as justification, also. Bryant insisted that was his best team ever and they got screwed by circumstances, too.
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Georgia beat the champion of the ACC. That doesn’t make them BCS worthy… much less #1 worthy.
The Pac Ten was average this year, and proved as much in their bowl games, so beating their champion isn’t all that great an accomplishment.
They beat one BCS conference opponent (Oregon). Their non-conference schedule included UC Davis, 1-11 Miami (OH), 5-7 Tulsa, 7-6 Bowling Green, and the aforementioned Oregon. If they want big time status, they have to play big time teams… not just once, but several times per year.
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Since you brought it up, I hereby claim the 2009 ACC Championship for UGA by vitue of its win against GA Tech at Grant field, the new site of the ACC Championship game henceforth.
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I purposely used the word ‘considered’ in my statement. Not saying they should be #1, just that they should be in the discussion…especially if Texas is the MNC.
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Your point is valid if Texas beats ‘Bama. If the Tide go undefeated, though, I don’t think BSU deserves any consideration at all. The resumes of the two aren’t in the same class.
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I see you didn’t include the Cincy/Fla game tape. Remember Cincy was in this same discussion last week and I saw how that turned out.
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That’s because Cincy is also a BCS conference team. Apples to apples and you can toss in the USC/OU pasting, for the title no less. Or pretty much any of the USC vs Big Ten Rose Bowls of recent vintage….
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“■Politics and football alert #2: It looks like Congress is getting back in the long distance diagnosis business again. That worked spectacularly with Terri Schiavo.”
The Party that controls Congress today, and the people that support/vote for them, think that govenment is the solution to most of their problems: education, jobs, food, housing… why should medical decisions and personal choices based on those medical decisions for their football playing sons and brothers be any different?
(Considering that Obamacare was passed on Christmas Eve…errrr…make that “nondescript day before another descript day during the secular winter holiday that may or may not contain a day of importance to some people, be they of certain religious persuasions or just looking for religious cover for their outdated though oh-so-trendy political beliefs”…you better expect more of things like this in the future <– otherwise known as "Precisely what you voted for even though you were warned against it")
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No politics allowed on sports blogs.
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Wharrgarbl!
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Yet, you appear to be for governing college football into a playoff system that the free market has not dictated…
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I prefer to leave that decision up to the schools that make up the college football system…and not Congress. Right now those people support the system they have. Will it always be that way…probably not. Will a playoff system (8-16-32-whatever) be the next system…who knows. Whatever it is it isn’t for Congress to decide.
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Oh, yeah… that War on Christmas thing. Whoever pushes that must not live in these parts. Driving to my in-laws on Christmas Day, the only place I saw open for business was CVS. And they’re Canadians, anyway. 😉
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Paging Dr. Frist. Dr. Bill Frist.
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“nondescript day before another descript day during the secular winter holiday that may or may not contain a day of importance to some people, be they of certain religious persuasions or just looking for religious cover for their outdated though oh-so-trendy political beliefs”
Made me laugh hard.
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To be fair, all indication shows that BSU has tried very hard to schedule some big boys. Nobody will play them. UGA vs BSU was not a reason for people to be scared to schedule them. The major problem with scheduling them is that its like fighting a younger sibling. No matter how big and strong little bro may be, You better win! But, when you do win people expect it and its not a big deal. If you lose, its the end of the world. I feel bad for teams like Boise/TCU/non BCS good teams who have the glass ceiling. A BCS appearance is cool for them but they will never be a part of the Championship picture. To me that’s unfair and is also why I wanted Bama, UF, Cinci to lose for TCU and BSU to play each other in the BCSCG. If that had happened, don’t you think a playoff would have been on the way? I do. This nation could not stand for BSU or TCU to be our Natl Champ.
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Probably because Boise wants a home-and-home, but nobody will give them a return trip. Why would you? I wouldn’t take my football team to freakin’ Boise to play on blue smurf turf where the home team is going to camouflage themselves with the field.
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Excellent point. Maybe UGA could set up a home-and-home and we could black out the entire field.
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Red would look better.
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The University of Texas just played an away game at WYOMING!!!
Try another argument…
(Because this one isn’t completely true…BSU has offered to play AWAY games against BCS schools without getting a home date in return. Next year BSU will play a “neutral site” game against Virginia Tech in Maryland (Ravens’ home) to open the season. What do you wanna bet there is never a West Coast ‘neutral site’ date arranged for the following year, say in Denver (Broncos’ home) or Seattle (Seahawks’ home)???)
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BSU’s 2010 OOC schedule is quite credible: Toledo, Wyoming, Oregon State and Virginia Tech.
If the Broncos run the table next season, they’ll be a legitimate contender for the BCS title game.
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Keep in mind, the only reason they have that schedule is because the patsy (though BCS-legit!!! team) that Tech was originally suppossed to play in a Home-and-Home backed out this year: Syracuse. And, notice, that Tech didn’t offer the H&H option to BSU…only a neutral East Coast site next year.
Syracuse backed out this year…and notice how BSU “made it happen” for the short end of the stick that they could get. Don’t you think that if Ohio State dropped Akron, or Texas dropped Rice that BSU would be every bit as eager and accomodating as they where this/next year? BSU has done everything that they can to gain acceptance…it is in the hands of the BCS teams/conferences to give them their chance.
BTW: did you notice the graph last night showing where BSU gets its players from…quite a few from California. Now, keep that in mind when you think of Southern Cal, that will schedule big names everywhere, and ask why SC or UCLA, or Cal never appears on the BSU schedule. Playing BSU gives BSU legitimacy and access to recruits and very little in return; yet another reason why the big boys won’t schedule BSU.
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So, what you’re saying here is that the big boys won’t schedule BSU… except when they do. 😉
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You don’t suppose the Tech game had anything to do with BSU’s AD calling the BCS teams out this year, do you? 😉
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Nope. It came about because (1) BSU dropped its demand of a home-and-home with any D-1 power; and (2) the AD got a bit more realistic about the guaranteed appearance money (rumor was he was asking upwards of $1.3 million).
I compare what BSU and TCU are trying to do now with what Bowden did to get FSU established in the 70’s and 80’s. He was a helluva lot more realistic about how to build a national program than those schools (particularly BSU) have been.
Boise, in particular, feels itself entitled to stand on the same ground as the big boys on the basis of one bowl victory. The market place doesn’t work like that.
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“what Bowden did to get FSU established in the 70’s and 80’s. He was a helluva lot more realistic…”
That’s right, buddy.
Bowden Fun Fact No. 1: We’re all his buddy.
“When Burt Reynolds first met Bowden, he marveled at how brilliantly Bowden enunciated his nickname. “I always marveled at the fact that he always knew my name,” Reynolds said. “Buddy! Get over here. Buddy! Come on in. Sit down. Tell me what’s happenin’, Buddy!. Then I found out that everybody was Buddy. But it is my name, and I just loved to hear him say it.”
Richt, a former Bowden assistant, told the tale of his decision in 1986 to become a born-again Christian. Richt made the choice at a time of great turmoil, and Bowden was thrilled to help Richt into the flock. So the men went into Bowden’s office and kneeled to pray. According to Richt, Bowden did the talking with the almighty. “Dear Lord,” Richt remembered Bowden saying, “I’m here with … What’s your name again, buddy?”
Weinke remembered that after the Seminoles beat Virginia Tech in the Sugar Bowl to win the 1999 national title, Florida State trooper Billy Smith handed Bowden a telephone in the locker room. “Hey, buddy,” Bowden yelled into the receiver. The caller? President Bill Clinton.”
http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2009/writers/andy_staples/07/16/bowden.roast/index.html
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Accept, of course, that Idaho looks nothing like Florida in that BCS teams rarely recruit their, their aren’t any high school football factories there, and with the BCS system, there is no need to play such a non-conference game.
FSU before the dynasty began…ten years ’77-’86:
85-31 with the biggest bowl wins being two Gator Bowl victories over West Virginia and Oklahoma State
BSU the last ten years:
102-17 with two Fiesta Bowl victories
The FSU teams that Boise actually looks like in the record books are those that were in full dynasty mode…the next ten years from above…’87-’96
107-14
Yes, FSU’s competition was stronger than BSU’s over that ten year period but that is because FSU was already in the ‘club’ and they got in on an inferior resume when you look at w/l totals and bowl victories.
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Further…
(1) BSU agreed not to be treated as an equal even though, with rare exception, they would have more victories and more BCS Bowl wins than their likley opponent in the last five years
(2) Which is a far lesser sum than each team gets for the Kickoff Classic though I am sure we will all be rivieted to our seats for the UT/NC State game. Surely they will earn their $1.9 mil each.
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On the subject of Reshad Jones,
I have to wonder if he turns out to be a lights-out safety in the NFL and we in Dawg nation are all wonder what might have been if we had a better defensive staff to coach him up.
On the other hand, I’m somewhat encouraged that we didn’t get a confirmation from Rennie that he’s leaving at the same time. Maybe that means he’s taking longer with his decision, which can only help our chances of seeing him back next season.
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Reshad smells like a poor man’s Greg Blue.
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I don’t know, Blue was average at best in pass coverage. Reshad has much better ball skills. Just my opinion.
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I will be surprised if this turns out to be a good decision for Reshad. I don’t doubt the talent potential over the long haul, but his resume is very light to expect much in the draft. He is one of those players who may could have added mucho dollars with another year. I think he is a 2nd day draft pick, if that. Just isn’t likely to be much of a line for him so why pay top dollar.
UGA could very likely make the SECCG next season, I don’t see anyone any better than us at this point and our schedue is much friendlier. A high profile season for UGA and improved performance by Reshad could have translated into significantly more dollars, imo.
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Rennie’s not getting any taller, so I think his chances of leaving are pretty high.
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I’m glad Reshad is gone. Nothing against the kid but that opens the door for Jakar Hamilton to get some playing time. He’s from Strom Thurmond High School in Edgefield, SC where I’m living (sigh). The kid is lightening fast has lot a boat load of talent. I’m really hoping he does well and makes something of himself.
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Reptillicide,
Did you watch the pregame last night? I heard BSU’s AD mention somethingabout that. However, I thought he said that they offered to play on the road with no return. I could be wrong just wondering what yall heard. Also, about the blue turf, I think there is something to that camo thing. Maybe UGA should change their colors to match the specific color of grass they will be playing on.
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If you’ll check the archives here, you’ll find that’s a recent development on the part of BSU, brought on by the declining economy.
Until last year, BSU’s policy wasn’t to offer one-shot road games.
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I agree about the camo turf issue. Seems like it ought to be illegal to wear uniforms that match the turf so closely…or if it isn’t Orrin Hatch ought to get on it.
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“Could Leach and the Oakland Raiders be a dream association?”
Please Dear God, let this happen.
Mike Leach, Jamarcus Russell and Al Davis at the Oakland Mausoleum. It may not be as good as the Al and Lane show but in the name this narcissist fan who likes to mock narcissist coaches and narcissist owners, please Dear God or Allah or Yahweh or whatever your name is in the East Bay, please let this happen.
The Al
and Mike Show
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How can you not like this guy? After watching these videos it makes me hate the TT administration. ESPN and the James kid and his daddy, too. What a bunch of assholes.
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