Any team which knocked out the potential national champions from the previous year returning 20 starters seems to have earned the right to enter my top 10. The Bruins finished 2006 with a 7-6 record, but keep in mind they were one luck of the Notre Dame Irish play away from 8-5.
The 2007 schedule is a doozie, as all 3 of UCLA’s non-conference opponents are coming off of bowl game worthy seasons. Expect an early season battle for QB to dominate the headlines, as Ben Olson will look to reclaim his starting job from Patrick Cowan following a season ending injury last season. To take the pressure off the winner of the QB battle, expect the Bruins to focus on improving their 3.9 yards per rush, and expect Chrisk Markey to lead the way for UCLA in rushing again.
The defense will be anchored by one of the best lines in the country, including Bruce Davis, who finished ’06 with 12.5 sacks. Also returning are Freshman All American Reggie Carter and the Bruins leading tackler in 2006, safety Chris Horton.
The Bruins schedule on first glance seems favorable, with the annual game vs. USC the major obstacle. Charlie Weiss and his merry men of Irish come to town October 6. expect UCLA to enact some revenge following last year’s heartbreak. On the reverse hand, fully expect USC to destroy the Bruins following the miracle win of last year. UCLA should be satisfied with a 2 loss season, and an outside chance at the BCS.
Friday, June 15, 2007
Wednesday, June 13, 2007
College Football Pre Season Preview
My first ever pre season college football preview will be coming shortly. I will likely run down a top 10, as well as predict the conference champions and the 5 BCS games. Keep checking back in the coming weeks.
Was he or wasn't he?
The question of the night following the last play of Game 3 of the NBA Finals - did Spurs forward Bruce Bowen foul LeBron James prior to the King's release of what became a failed attempt to tie the game?
The answer - irrelevant. James FT% has been subpar for the majority of the season and the playoffs, and I'd bet a turkey sandwhich he would have missed at least one just like he did in last year's Game 7 vs. the Pistons in the Conference Semi-Finals. The playoffs have been a great stage for the growth of James, but lest we forget, this is a 22 year old kid. Sure, he has Greg Odonitis, and looks to be in his mid 30's, but the reality is asking James to lead the group of ragtags around him past the juggernaut from San Antonio is a bit much. I won't be one to criticize the young man - we should all just sit back and enjoy watching the evolution of a great talent. Remember, it took Jordan 7 years to get to his first finals, and he made it with Scottie Pippen in his side pocket. Lay of King James - he isn't a choke artist or afraid to take the big shot. He should be commended for leading the talent weak Cavs this far.
The answer - irrelevant. James FT% has been subpar for the majority of the season and the playoffs, and I'd bet a turkey sandwhich he would have missed at least one just like he did in last year's Game 7 vs. the Pistons in the Conference Semi-Finals. The playoffs have been a great stage for the growth of James, but lest we forget, this is a 22 year old kid. Sure, he has Greg Odonitis, and looks to be in his mid 30's, but the reality is asking James to lead the group of ragtags around him past the juggernaut from San Antonio is a bit much. I won't be one to criticize the young man - we should all just sit back and enjoy watching the evolution of a great talent. Remember, it took Jordan 7 years to get to his first finals, and he made it with Scottie Pippen in his side pocket. Lay of King James - he isn't a choke artist or afraid to take the big shot. He should be commended for leading the talent weak Cavs this far.
Monday, June 11, 2007
NBA Yawner
The finals are upon us - or wait, are they over yet? Cleveland and San Antonio may care about what is happening right now, but the rest of us? Not a chance.
Honestly, like the rest of you, I likely thought that the Finals would showcase the final coming out of King LeBron James. After Game 5 vs. Detroit, how could one expect less? But like a 2007 plate appearance by Lance Berkman, we've been left wanting.
Perhaps this is an indication of what is wrong with sports in general. We are always looking for the NEXT something or other. What's wrong with the current version of the spors we adore. Let's face it - the 1980's and 1990's are over. I like my 80's rock music and 90's pop culture just as much as the next guy, but the sports heydays from the likes of Michael Jordan, Magic Johnson, Joe Montana, the Cowboys, the Great One, Dale Earnherdt Sr. are over. What we have now is the media blitz of sportscenter driven events, and it's time to either embrace it or let it go. But every 13 year old kid growing up the projects with a decent J and some sweet crossovers can't be the next MJ. The fiarhaired QB from Notre Dame can't be the next Montana. The Junior can't be the Senior (it takes winning a race in NASCAR to accomplish this, something Dale Jr. can't seem to handle these days)
Perhaps we can sit back and enjoy what we have now...
But damn, those glory days were great.
Honestly, like the rest of you, I likely thought that the Finals would showcase the final coming out of King LeBron James. After Game 5 vs. Detroit, how could one expect less? But like a 2007 plate appearance by Lance Berkman, we've been left wanting.
Perhaps this is an indication of what is wrong with sports in general. We are always looking for the NEXT something or other. What's wrong with the current version of the spors we adore. Let's face it - the 1980's and 1990's are over. I like my 80's rock music and 90's pop culture just as much as the next guy, but the sports heydays from the likes of Michael Jordan, Magic Johnson, Joe Montana, the Cowboys, the Great One, Dale Earnherdt Sr. are over. What we have now is the media blitz of sportscenter driven events, and it's time to either embrace it or let it go. But every 13 year old kid growing up the projects with a decent J and some sweet crossovers can't be the next MJ. The fiarhaired QB from Notre Dame can't be the next Montana. The Junior can't be the Senior (it takes winning a race in NASCAR to accomplish this, something Dale Jr. can't seem to handle these days)
Perhaps we can sit back and enjoy what we have now...
But damn, those glory days were great.
Monday, January 15, 2007
NFL Playoff preview
NFL Game Preview
New Orleans Saints 24
Chicago Bears 14
New England 31
Indianapolis 27
New Orleans Saints 24
Chicago Bears 14
New England 31
Indianapolis 27
College Hoops
It’s been a long while since I’ve been online here. Sports hasn’t stopped without me, and the number one story while I was away? For me, it was the Notre Dame loss in the Sugar Bowl. My hatred for them Irish runs deep. Ohio State and Michigan were able to prove just how overrated the Big 10 really is. Amazing ending to the college football season. Nothing makes the southern heart swell like watching a bunch of overmatched northern Yankees like Ohio State get pounded by some southern Florida speed. Greatness.
Our focus must now shift, however, as football begins to wind down. Upcoming is the meat of the college basketball season. Conference games have begun in earnest, and the only clear thing at this point of the season is that college basketball is down. Way down. It’s clearly lightyears behind their counterparts on the gridiron as far as massive casual fan interest. And why not? The teams rosters flip flop like pancakes on a Sunday at Waffle House. The teams with season, experienced players are Nevada, Air Force, or South-western-Idaho State Tech. The point being, without marquee teams having marquee players playing in marquee games, the sport as a whole will suffer.
But what about Florida, Andy???? They brought back their entire starting lineup from the national championship team. Florida just may be the shot in the arm the sport needs. We need a team to dominate a season. Each sport needs its Yankees – that team which can contend every year and give other teams a model to shoot for. In college hoops, there are no traditional powers with great rivalries. The players don’t stay around long enough to create great matchups year in and year out. Even the greatest game in the sport, Duke vs. North Carolina, has been a yawner over the past few years, as the Heels and Devils can recreate those magic games of the early 90’s.
There is no consistency, no tradition. The sport is in dire straights, with the ratings and attendance dropping year after year. Unless schools and coaches get together to work out a way to rebuild the traditions and excellence that was college hoops of the 80’s and 90’s, the trends will continue. Football keeps players for 3 years. Even baseball, once a recruit commits to a school, keeps players that minimum of 3 years. With the great talent in college bball jumping ship after just one year now, the marquee names and players will continue to head to the pros, and college hoops fans will continue in languish in what is quickly deteriorating showing in college hoops.
Our focus must now shift, however, as football begins to wind down. Upcoming is the meat of the college basketball season. Conference games have begun in earnest, and the only clear thing at this point of the season is that college basketball is down. Way down. It’s clearly lightyears behind their counterparts on the gridiron as far as massive casual fan interest. And why not? The teams rosters flip flop like pancakes on a Sunday at Waffle House. The teams with season, experienced players are Nevada, Air Force, or South-western-Idaho State Tech. The point being, without marquee teams having marquee players playing in marquee games, the sport as a whole will suffer.
But what about Florida, Andy???? They brought back their entire starting lineup from the national championship team. Florida just may be the shot in the arm the sport needs. We need a team to dominate a season. Each sport needs its Yankees – that team which can contend every year and give other teams a model to shoot for. In college hoops, there are no traditional powers with great rivalries. The players don’t stay around long enough to create great matchups year in and year out. Even the greatest game in the sport, Duke vs. North Carolina, has been a yawner over the past few years, as the Heels and Devils can recreate those magic games of the early 90’s.
There is no consistency, no tradition. The sport is in dire straights, with the ratings and attendance dropping year after year. Unless schools and coaches get together to work out a way to rebuild the traditions and excellence that was college hoops of the 80’s and 90’s, the trends will continue. Football keeps players for 3 years. Even baseball, once a recruit commits to a school, keeps players that minimum of 3 years. With the great talent in college bball jumping ship after just one year now, the marquee names and players will continue to head to the pros, and college hoops fans will continue in languish in what is quickly deteriorating showing in college hoops.
Wednesday, December 13, 2006
Christmas Season
The 12 Days of Christmas, one of our favorite Christmas carols. It leads me to think I ought to do a 12 Day of Something list. So, in the spirit of the Holidays, I present my 12 favorite memories of the 2006 college football regular season.
1) Texas A&M beating Texas. Yes, as a Longhorn it hurt, especially to run down the street in Aggie maroon in my underwear (don’t ask). But I guess the old saying be careful what you wish for rang true this year in Austin, as the Aggies once again made this game relevant. After the viscous cheap shot administered to Colt McCoy, I’m counting the days to next year’s game. Just like I wanted.
2) Wake Forest winning the ACC, Rutgers 10-2 season, and Rice heading to a bowl game. I’m sure we all had that one picked out in the ACC (to hell with Miami, Florida State, and Virginia Tech), just like we had Rice selected to head to a bowl game. It seems some of the smallest schools in Division I football proved moto – size doesn’t matter. Good coaching, however, does.
3) SEC football. No amount of ESPN/ABC Sports hype could pull me away from constantly tuning into the CBS game of the week. From Auburn’s blowout loss at home to Arkansas, to the thriller between LSU and Tennessee, CBS seems to have a stranglehold on the prime time game of the week, regardless of the time of day. It’s no coincidence that ESPN pushes so hard with promotions to compete – they have a lackluster offering. When you have two top 5 teams playing in one week, and the sports’ premier program show (ESPN’s College Gameday) goes on location at another game, you can be sure the folks at Sportscenter are damned sure worried about ratings.
4) Boise State. Sure, they will likely get hammered in the Fiesta Bowl against OU, but it will be nice to see the mid major schools be represented in one of the years big bowls. That is, of course, if anyone tunes in. We all remember the last time a BCS buster made the Fiesta Bowl – Utah rolled over Pittsburgh (I can hear the ratings numbers now!)
5) The BCS bowl busts – how many of us are dying to catch that Boise State / OU game. Or how about the yawner in the Orange Bowl – Wake Forest / Louisville. The focus has been on tweaking the BCS to get the sure fire number 1 and 2 teams to play each other. We should also work out some kind of system to avoid such sorry matchups as the ones we have coming this year.
6) Ohio State playing three teams in one year ranked #2. Should the Buckeyes defeat the Florida Gators in the BCS Championship, they will be the first team in college football history to play, and defeat, the #2 ranked team in the country on 3 separate occasions. Regardless of whether you think those #2 teams matched up with Ohio State, it can still be a feat to admire.
7) Coach Chuck Amatto (sp?) at NC State getting fired. It seems appropriate that with the fall of the head of the Sicilian mob recently that the Italian bred, mobster looking coach of the Wolfpack was canned at the end of the season. I guess he can go back to whacking people’s knees in NYC.
8) The most recent – The University of North Texas hiring Todd Dodge, the coach of Southlake Carroll High School. Yes, you read that right – the Mean Grean is putting their program into the hands of a high school football coach. Granted, his offense has been one on which many of the major schools pattern the now popular spread option after, but still – only in Texas I guess!
9) The last two minutes of any close game. The NCAA’s new clock rules seemed to play a major factor during many games which came down to the wire, requiring teams to spend timeouts sooner, as well as costing teams plays at the end of the game. To me, the casual fan, it sure didn’t seem like the average of 4 minutes saved per game made a large difference in a game which lasts over 3.5 hours. Perhaps those jackasses at the NCAA will review and expunge this silly new rule. College football is about the college football fan, and should not be tailored to television networks like the NFL. If the game takes 6 hours because Texas Tech throws on every play, then so be it. Leave our game alone!
10) Both of USC’s losses this year. Classic games, each. The Oregon State game was one where you had to watch the Beavers pulling away in the 2nd and 3rd quarter. Had that score been reversed at any time during that game, folks would have switched off. When you see a favored team getting destroyed, however, folks seem gripped. And this game, with the failed USC two point conversion at the end of the game to cap off a furious Trojan comeback, was one of the better games of the season. The UCLA game was even better – not only had the media, computers, and Trojan fans nationwide assumed USC was in the BCS Title game after the beatdown of Notre Dame, but no one thought the UCLA team who had blown a game against the same Fighting Irish earlier in the year would stand a chance. It is, as they say, why they play the games. The tip and pick of John David Booty’s last pass attempt by the UCLA defensive lineman deep in Bruin territory with the game on the line was arguably the play of the college football season.
11) Michigan vs. Ohio State. Sure I think both teams are overrated, as they have played a cupcake schedule in the Big Ten. However, the hype and hoopla in the weeks leading up to the big game was enough to make even the most jaded of fans tune in, and for the defensive powers to put up 79 points was incredible. It was a great game, and a great spotlight for the college game.
12) Notre Dame exposed as the most overrated team in college sports history. A shellacking at home to Michigan. A miracle comeback against Michigan State, a team who failed to make a bowl game. An even bigger miracle at home against UCLA. The teams other wins? Army, Navy, Air Force, North Carolina, Stanford, Penn State, Georgia Tech. Yikes. And let’s not forget the egg laid by the Irish in their matchup with USC. I am counting the days to the Sugar Bowl, when Notre Dame will be handed their 9th straight bowl game loss.
1) Texas A&M beating Texas. Yes, as a Longhorn it hurt, especially to run down the street in Aggie maroon in my underwear (don’t ask). But I guess the old saying be careful what you wish for rang true this year in Austin, as the Aggies once again made this game relevant. After the viscous cheap shot administered to Colt McCoy, I’m counting the days to next year’s game. Just like I wanted.
2) Wake Forest winning the ACC, Rutgers 10-2 season, and Rice heading to a bowl game. I’m sure we all had that one picked out in the ACC (to hell with Miami, Florida State, and Virginia Tech), just like we had Rice selected to head to a bowl game. It seems some of the smallest schools in Division I football proved moto – size doesn’t matter. Good coaching, however, does.
3) SEC football. No amount of ESPN/ABC Sports hype could pull me away from constantly tuning into the CBS game of the week. From Auburn’s blowout loss at home to Arkansas, to the thriller between LSU and Tennessee, CBS seems to have a stranglehold on the prime time game of the week, regardless of the time of day. It’s no coincidence that ESPN pushes so hard with promotions to compete – they have a lackluster offering. When you have two top 5 teams playing in one week, and the sports’ premier program show (ESPN’s College Gameday) goes on location at another game, you can be sure the folks at Sportscenter are damned sure worried about ratings.
4) Boise State. Sure, they will likely get hammered in the Fiesta Bowl against OU, but it will be nice to see the mid major schools be represented in one of the years big bowls. That is, of course, if anyone tunes in. We all remember the last time a BCS buster made the Fiesta Bowl – Utah rolled over Pittsburgh (I can hear the ratings numbers now!)
5) The BCS bowl busts – how many of us are dying to catch that Boise State / OU game. Or how about the yawner in the Orange Bowl – Wake Forest / Louisville. The focus has been on tweaking the BCS to get the sure fire number 1 and 2 teams to play each other. We should also work out some kind of system to avoid such sorry matchups as the ones we have coming this year.
6) Ohio State playing three teams in one year ranked #2. Should the Buckeyes defeat the Florida Gators in the BCS Championship, they will be the first team in college football history to play, and defeat, the #2 ranked team in the country on 3 separate occasions. Regardless of whether you think those #2 teams matched up with Ohio State, it can still be a feat to admire.
7) Coach Chuck Amatto (sp?) at NC State getting fired. It seems appropriate that with the fall of the head of the Sicilian mob recently that the Italian bred, mobster looking coach of the Wolfpack was canned at the end of the season. I guess he can go back to whacking people’s knees in NYC.
8) The most recent – The University of North Texas hiring Todd Dodge, the coach of Southlake Carroll High School. Yes, you read that right – the Mean Grean is putting their program into the hands of a high school football coach. Granted, his offense has been one on which many of the major schools pattern the now popular spread option after, but still – only in Texas I guess!
9) The last two minutes of any close game. The NCAA’s new clock rules seemed to play a major factor during many games which came down to the wire, requiring teams to spend timeouts sooner, as well as costing teams plays at the end of the game. To me, the casual fan, it sure didn’t seem like the average of 4 minutes saved per game made a large difference in a game which lasts over 3.5 hours. Perhaps those jackasses at the NCAA will review and expunge this silly new rule. College football is about the college football fan, and should not be tailored to television networks like the NFL. If the game takes 6 hours because Texas Tech throws on every play, then so be it. Leave our game alone!
10) Both of USC’s losses this year. Classic games, each. The Oregon State game was one where you had to watch the Beavers pulling away in the 2nd and 3rd quarter. Had that score been reversed at any time during that game, folks would have switched off. When you see a favored team getting destroyed, however, folks seem gripped. And this game, with the failed USC two point conversion at the end of the game to cap off a furious Trojan comeback, was one of the better games of the season. The UCLA game was even better – not only had the media, computers, and Trojan fans nationwide assumed USC was in the BCS Title game after the beatdown of Notre Dame, but no one thought the UCLA team who had blown a game against the same Fighting Irish earlier in the year would stand a chance. It is, as they say, why they play the games. The tip and pick of John David Booty’s last pass attempt by the UCLA defensive lineman deep in Bruin territory with the game on the line was arguably the play of the college football season.
11) Michigan vs. Ohio State. Sure I think both teams are overrated, as they have played a cupcake schedule in the Big Ten. However, the hype and hoopla in the weeks leading up to the big game was enough to make even the most jaded of fans tune in, and for the defensive powers to put up 79 points was incredible. It was a great game, and a great spotlight for the college game.
12) Notre Dame exposed as the most overrated team in college sports history. A shellacking at home to Michigan. A miracle comeback against Michigan State, a team who failed to make a bowl game. An even bigger miracle at home against UCLA. The teams other wins? Army, Navy, Air Force, North Carolina, Stanford, Penn State, Georgia Tech. Yikes. And let’s not forget the egg laid by the Irish in their matchup with USC. I am counting the days to the Sugar Bowl, when Notre Dame will be handed their 9th straight bowl game loss.
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