Fourth and Dumb

So, it’s late, and I have to be up in about 5 hours, so here’s the long and short of it.

Chris kicked ass again, the rest of us are beginning to fall behind.

The pressure to atone for last week’s guest picks falls on the shoulders of Mike Dame. Mike, once upon a time, was Chris’ freshman roommate in college (and somehow lived to tell the tale). A former AP poll and Heisman voter, Mike is also a former employee of Virginia Tech. His most memorable moment as a sportswriter, in his own words:

When Norm Sloan pointed at me in a press conference in October 1989 after I reported in The Independent Florida Alligator that his firing was imminent. “It’s like throwing chum in the water, and you frenzy like a bunch of sharks!” Sloan famously said of the media. “I’m not going anywhere!” Two days later, UF announced Sloan’s “resignation.” (God rest his soul, because I loved Norm Sloan.)

And with that, we move on to Week 5.

Read on for commentary and analysis. Continue reading ‘Pick ‘Em – Week 5’ »

After three weeks, the entirety of our pickers are within one game of each other. I don’t think I’ve seen this much parity since the 2008 ACC. Is that a good thing?

Last week’s guest picker, Craig Barker, took a couple gambles and kept the guest spot at a perfect .500 record.

This week’s guest is James Quintong. James is an editor and occasional writer for ESPN.com’s fantasy section and also was on the original staff at CNNSI.com (now SI.com). He was a longtime member of TRASH before moving to other side of the buzzer, and is currently part of the reigning TRASHionals champions. In short, he’s everything that the good chunks of the blogosphere and quizbowl world apparently dislike. Oh yeah, he helped form Northwestern’s quizbowl team back in the mid-’90s, right around the time the Wildcats went to the Rose Bowl, and also graduated the same year as current head coach Pat Fitzgerald (but isn’t sure if that makes feel old or young).

Want to join us as a guest? Leave a comment with an email address, and we’ll get in touch.

On to week 4!

Read on for commentary and analysis. Continue reading ‘Pick ‘Em – Week 4’ »

Congrats to DanGr, who managed to become the first FnD writer to have a winning record for the week. It only took two weeks, folks!

Also – a quick plug here for the Fourth and Dumb College Pick ‘Em Challenge on ESPN.com. Some of you have joined but neglected to submit picks for a week for two. (I’m looking at YOU, Dan Greenstein.)

This week’s guest picker is Craig Barker. Craig is a member of the University of Michigan quiz bowl team in the previous century, longtime member of the Mike Keenan Employment Agency trash team, and a man currently enjoying his quiz bowl retirement. A Michigan football fan for so long he can still vividly remember listening to Mike Gilette’s field goal to beat Iowa in 1985, he has resigned himself to the fact that he will never be the most famous member of his collegiate graduating class. (Curse you Tom Brady, you handsome devil.) When not posting not-quite-as-witty-as-he-thinks rejoinders on various points on the Internet, he can be found blogging about Michigan athletics (including the Marching Band) at The Hoover Street Rag.

Based on our records after two weeks, I’m not sure we can do much worse. Here’s to hoping the season improves. Moving on!

Read on for commentary and analysis. Continue reading ‘Pick ‘Em – Week 3’ »

You may have heard that the American Football Coaches Association (AFCA), led by fossil Grant Teaff (pronounced “taahf”–remember when he coached Baylor in the 80s? No? Really?) has proposed that all teams playing on this upcoming opening weekend of the 2009 season exchange a handshake at midfield before the game. It’s a one-time thing, symbolic of the hopes that sportsmanship and gentlemanly civility will rule the day for our young scholar-athletes throughout the season.

A nice idea on paper, and maybe not a bad thing for 90% of the non-conference (or even non-division) ritual sacrifices for pay that populate our weekend’s schedule. Does anyone expect the Buccaneers of Charleston Southern to get feisty with the Gators in The Swamp during pre-game festivities? Would anyone think the Fighting Mormons of BYU would swear at Sam Bradford? Will the gentlemanly Midshipmen ask Terrell Pryor if his mother has been selling potato chips*? Certainly not. Handshakes in such games will be nice to see.

However, I’m going to be in the stands for a game that has gotten ugly before the coin toss on more than one occasion: Miami vs. FSU at Bobby Bowl. FSU has won four of five from the ‘Canes, who ought to be in a foul mood and who have been known in the past to try to grab the spear thrown or horse ridden by the frat boy who gets to be Chief Osceola (side note: isn’t it weird that the main mascot is named for a man tricked by US soldiers under a flag of truce into capture and then allowed to die from typhus?) before games up there. Maybe I’m just cynical, but I can see some pretty graphic exchanges along that handshake line. AndI expect the same from some pissed-off Ducks none too thrilled about being punked by Boise State last year in their home stadium.

Well, we’ll see. Maybe I’ll be lucky enough to watch a Miami-FSU riot in person. Good times!

*(Then why did she have a sign saying “Lays 50 cents” in the yard? Haw haw!)

True freshman A.J. Highsmith is now the Almost BMOC in Coral Gables, after Miami coach Randy Shannon granted Taylor Cook and Cannon Smith, 2nd and 3rd string quarterbacks respectively, permission to transfer to other programs in search of more playing time, without restriction.

This doesn’t bode well for the Canes, who face a tough early-season schedule (@Florida State, Georgia Tech, @Virginia Tech), and now would be seriously up the creek should starting quarterback Jacory Harris falter.

Maybe nothing. Maybe a lot.

Ole Miss didn’t just beat Texas Tech, they handled them on both sides of the ball. This is the same TT offense that scored a ton of points on Texas and got over 30 on Oklahoma, but the Rebels got tons of pressure on Harrell and gouged them with the run game. Does this tell us that Florida will be able to run consistently on Oklahoma and get pressure on Bradford with just the front four, allowing LBs and DBs to stay in coverage?

But wait–what about Utah dominating Bama? The Utes got seven sacks on JP Wilson and locked down Glen Coffee in ways that the Gators clearly couldn’t.

Maybe none of this tells us too much. I know I was personally annoyed at the ass-kissing that Brent Musburger and my wife’s favorite sportscaster, Kirk Herbstreit, laid on the Trojans, continually suggesting that USC had gotten screwed and would frighten either Oklahoma or UF. Sure, it sucks that USC lost the one-loss beauty pageant, but their loss was indeed to Oregon State, a team that got whipped by Oregon and also lost to Utah, who is most obviously the team that has gotten screwed this year. And now we hear a lot about how the Pac 10 went undefeated in the bowls, but look at the opponents: OSU beat Pitt in the snorefest of all snorefests, Oregon won a very entertaining game over Okie State, though after TT’s loss that may not look quite as impressive, Arizona beat an overrated BYU, Cal beat a lackluster Miami team, and USC earned the honor of laying the traditional holiday ass-whupping on the Big 10 champ. Big deal.

Certainly not the way most of us wanted to start off bowl week – being reminded that it’s easy to underestimate teams we haven’t seen all season. Fred pads his lead a little more, and Chris manages to spend two whole weeks out of the basement.

On to the second portion of our three-week garden party.

Commentary and analysis after the jump.
Continue reading ‘Pick ‘Em – Bowl Week Extravaganza – Part 2’ »

It was a thing for beauty for all enthusiasts of the totally awesome triple option.  Georgia Tech head coach Paul Johnson unleashed his playbook and the results were devastating: 472 rushing yards, the most yards rushing given up by Miami since 1944, and the most accumulated by Tech since 1978.  More important, however, was the final score, 41-23, in a game that was not as close as that score indicates: the score was 27-3 midway through the third quarter.  It was complete domination by an old school offense against the vaunted Miami defense.  Just when Miami looked like it was about to get back to being Miami, they lose their heads and get smoked old school.

Do you believe now that the totally awesome triple option works against Les Six?  What is that, still not convinced?  As big as this game was for its conference standing, the next game is for its standing in its state.  Yes, Clean, Old-Fashioned Hate is just around the corner.  If Georgia Tech can go into Athens and knock off the Georgia Bulldogs for the first time since 2000, then everyone will believe in what Paul Johnson and his Yellow Jackets are doing for the North Avenue Trade School.

With a record of 5-3, Georgia Tech is now done with ACC regular season play.  With their win, they greatly enhanced their chances of attending the ACC Championship Game and diminished those of Miami.  With one more ACC game in the books, what does the ACC Coastal division race look like now?

- All five teams in contention now have three losses.  To qualify for the tiebreaker process, each team needs to get to 5-3.  From now on, a loss by the four remaining teams at any time this weekend or next weekend eliminates them from the race.

- Georgia Tech needs North Carolina to lose a game and the winner of Virginia-Virginia Tech to lose their previous game.  The Yellow Jackets would lose all tiebreakers that involve one of those teams.

- Miami needs the Virginia-Virginia Tech winner to win its previous game and for North Carolina to lose a game.  Miami cannot win a tiebreaker with only Georgia Tech or any tiebreaker involving North Carolina.

- North Carolina needs the Virginia-Virginia Tech winner to lose its other game.  North Carolina wins all tiebreakers not involving the Virginia teams.

- Virginia and Virginia Tech need Miami to lose a game and/or have North Carolina win both games.  The only way the winner of their matchup wins a tiebreaker involving Miami is if North Carolina is included in that tie.

Hey – what’s that? I’m not so bad at picking games after all. We’ve got a tie for second place now.

Boston College (+6.5) at #19 Florida State, Saturday 8:00pm ABC
Chris: Can anyone name any players on Boston College? I’m guessing DanGr could, but I can’t.
[Ed.: DanGr chose not to respond to this particular challenge, but I will: Kevin Challenger.]

South Carolina (+22.5) at #4 Florida, Sat 3:30pm CBS
DanGr: Does this seem familiar? They were in the exact same situation two years ago, twiddling their thumbs waiting for the SEC Championship Game. They ended up a botched field goal away from their national championship dreams being crushed in The Swamp by the Cocks. Do not be surprised if this is another close one, but the Gators will ultimately prevail.

#16 North Carolina (-3) at Maryland, Saturday 3:30pm ABC/ESPN
DanGo: There’s no “football science” in this pick. Maryland’s playing a a ranked team at home, thus.
Fred: Maryland is the Herschel Walker of college football. Not the dominating, run through eight brick walls and several small children actual player Herschel Walker, but you never know which Herschel you’re going to get Herschel Walker.

Minnesota (+13.5) at Wisconsin, Saturday 3:30pm ABC/ESPN
DanGo: Both of these teams have had a surprising season; Minnesota in a good way, Wisconsin in a not so good way. The Gophers have been surprising, but the loss to Michigan last week was a demoralizing blow, and the Badgers look to be too tough to stop.

Virginia Tech (+3.5) at Miami (FL), Thursday 8:00pm ESPN
Chris: Robert Marve continues running in place by throwing a couple picks, and Va Tech gets just enough offense to win.
DanGo: While I’m cheering for the Hokies the whole time in this one, I’m going to have to pick against them. The offense has still been stagnant, and even with a questionable return from Tyrod Taylor, the Hokies have too many question marks to play 60 minutes with a resurgent group of Hurricanes.

UCF (+7) at Marshall, Saturday 4:30 CSS
Chris: UCF has the worst offense in Division I, but Joe Burnett will get a pick and make a special teams play to get the Knights over. Bet on a combined under of 29 points.
PS–boy does George O’Leary suck.
DanGr: George O’Leary not only did not play college football, he also did not earn a Master’s in Education from NYU. Zing! That is besides the point. Face it, this Golden Knights team is as tarnished as O’Leary’s reputation. They are going to get spanked in Huntington against a Herd that wants to put pressure on East Carolina in the C-USA East race.

Notre Dame (-4) at Navy (Baltimore, MD), Saturday 12:00pm CBS
DanGr: If I pick against Navy again, my fiancée will exile herself to the couch.
Chris: DanGR, your fiancee needs to start practicing now to be a wife: YOU get exiled to the couch, not her.
DanGr: My fiancee will be no ordinary wife. I paid for the bed, so it is she who leaves. She agrees with me on this point.

I’m working on the picks for this week while I’m watching the VT – Miami game, and ESPN just managed to catch these two beauties.

Their sign, if you can’t read it, says “We Sparkle 4 Chris Fowler”

I’m at a loss for words.

(Click to Enlarge)