Bowl Thoughts so Far: Poptarts and Dogcrap
Posted: December 22nd, 2006, 10:56 am
Let's start with game one. TCU versus Northern Illinois. Here's the tale of the tape:
TCU:
=====
- 10 or more wins 3 of last 4 years.
- routinely beats teams they are not supposed to beat, and loses to bad teams on occasion, prompting them to be a feared, unpredictable opponent come scheduling-time and game-time.
- Excellent and underrated defense, annually.
- Does an amazing job of lassoing the DFW kids that are somehow overlooked (or slighted on scholarships) by the big programs in the surrounding area.
- Routinely develops 3-star players into very good college players, ala Chase Ortiz and Jeff Ballard.
- Have a much better coaching staff than people want to believe they do.
NORTHERN ILLINOIS:
=================
- Has had their coach 11 seasons, won the MAC maybe twice. Also, played for MAC title about two or three times. Can't even win a bad conference.
- Has had 2 worthwhile players in about 5 seasons (Wolfe, and Michael Turner of the Chargers persuasion)
- Terrible recruiting.
- Terrible against teams in big conferences.
- Not at all feared, and very predictable.
- Horrible coaching when brains need to be used a little bit.
- Annual conference contender in the preseason and an annual disappointment, once again, in a terrible conference.
A hell of a match-up. If you keep up with college ball a little more than the common fan, you can already smell the ratings for this dogfight.
THE CONTEST:
===========
- Absolute destruction by TCU. I did not catch the initial telecast of this game, but I got to see the first half of the replay later that night. If you ever get a chance to see a score run across the bottom of the screen, and it shows a blowout, and the game is gonna be replayed later that day, make sure you tune in to see at least the first half if you can. It is absolutely hilarious how bad commentators and "experts" call games before they are played. There was no way in hell Northern Illinois stood a chance in this game. They didn't even play for the MAC title! They were a worse team than OHIO and CENTRAL MICHIGAN. All you heard in the pregame was this insane hype for Garrett Wolfe, who is a decent running back. "Oh he only needs a few more yards to get 2000", "Oh the scouts think he sucks but they'll see tonight when he has a coming-out party". Yeah. This game was over as soon as that kid from TCU made that insane catch on the opening possession. It was complete domination by a much better team and a much better coaching staff and much better players. Garrett Wolfe had 28 yards on 20 carries. So much for proving those scouts wrong.
Game 2:
BYU:
========
- A sleeping giant that was finally awoken by 2nd year head coach Bronco Mendenhall, the Mormon Muscle, after they fired bozo reject Gary Crowden, who, ironicly, we'll discuss in a moment.
- Very solid coaching staff on both sides of the ball.
- Feared and underrated at their rank of 19th.
- Excellent quarterback in John Beck, and an excellent running-back in Curtis Brown.
- Beautiful uniforms.
OREGON:
=========
- I could go on about this all day. Oregon is like looking into a box of Poptarts, and seeing that someone ate one of them from the package, and stuck 1 Poptart back into the box for your disappointment. This is much like Oregon's program, and coincidentally enough, much like Mike Belloti's brain: you think there's 2 brain-cells, but really there is just 1.
- The media loves Oregon, and routinely tries their very best to make the Pac-10 a credible conference. What this means is, teams like Arizona State and Oregon are constantly given way more praise than they deserve. Especially Oregon. Oregon never wins big games, and always loses to terrible teams. They are probably the biggest joke in college football, with, you guessed it, a terrible coaching staff.
- When Crowden was justifiably fired by BYU, Mike Belloti thought he was a genius nonetheless. So he hired a failure to be his offensive coordinator. Great minds think alike, right? Very right. So all season, this year and last year, Gary Crowden did exactly what everyone knew he'd do: screw everything up. Gary Crowden was a hot coaching commodity when he was at Louisiana Tech. There's about 15 programs right now, including Notre Dame, who breathe a sigh of relief every time Crowden blows a game, which is every time the Ducks take the field. If you opened Gary Crowden's head, 3 lbs. of dogcrap would roll out onto the table.
- Incredibly overrated recruits.
- Insanely ridiculous uniforms, week to week.
THE CONTEST:
============
- Another wonderful match-up. BYU beat Oregon 38-8 last night, and boy does it feel good to be right, when you're right. That game was a complete disaster for Oregon, and only got worse in the second half. You know why? Because the Oregon coaching staff are a bunch of bush league amateurs who should honestly be coaching at the I-AA level. They could not win games if they had the talent at Ohio State this season. That BCS-level staff was totally embarrassed last night by a 2nd year coach who coaches in the Mountain West. John Beck slaughtered that overrated defense, and so did Curtis Brown. That Pac-10 contender offense put up 8 points, and once again, a coach looks like an idiot by playing a 2-QB system. FYI-- one of those kids in Ryan Leaf's brother. He played a hell of a game. Oh, and another thing... Oregon is such a powerhouse, right? there were about 15 Oregon fans at that game last night.
So hopefully as this bowl season moves forward, we will not have to watch idiotic match-ups like this. I didn't think BYU would win by 30, I figured 20, but it was a beautiful sight nonetheless. Until next time.
TCU:
=====
- 10 or more wins 3 of last 4 years.
- routinely beats teams they are not supposed to beat, and loses to bad teams on occasion, prompting them to be a feared, unpredictable opponent come scheduling-time and game-time.
- Excellent and underrated defense, annually.
- Does an amazing job of lassoing the DFW kids that are somehow overlooked (or slighted on scholarships) by the big programs in the surrounding area.
- Routinely develops 3-star players into very good college players, ala Chase Ortiz and Jeff Ballard.
- Have a much better coaching staff than people want to believe they do.
NORTHERN ILLINOIS:
=================
- Has had their coach 11 seasons, won the MAC maybe twice. Also, played for MAC title about two or three times. Can't even win a bad conference.
- Has had 2 worthwhile players in about 5 seasons (Wolfe, and Michael Turner of the Chargers persuasion)
- Terrible recruiting.
- Terrible against teams in big conferences.
- Not at all feared, and very predictable.
- Horrible coaching when brains need to be used a little bit.
- Annual conference contender in the preseason and an annual disappointment, once again, in a terrible conference.
A hell of a match-up. If you keep up with college ball a little more than the common fan, you can already smell the ratings for this dogfight.
THE CONTEST:
===========
- Absolute destruction by TCU. I did not catch the initial telecast of this game, but I got to see the first half of the replay later that night. If you ever get a chance to see a score run across the bottom of the screen, and it shows a blowout, and the game is gonna be replayed later that day, make sure you tune in to see at least the first half if you can. It is absolutely hilarious how bad commentators and "experts" call games before they are played. There was no way in hell Northern Illinois stood a chance in this game. They didn't even play for the MAC title! They were a worse team than OHIO and CENTRAL MICHIGAN. All you heard in the pregame was this insane hype for Garrett Wolfe, who is a decent running back. "Oh he only needs a few more yards to get 2000", "Oh the scouts think he sucks but they'll see tonight when he has a coming-out party". Yeah. This game was over as soon as that kid from TCU made that insane catch on the opening possession. It was complete domination by a much better team and a much better coaching staff and much better players. Garrett Wolfe had 28 yards on 20 carries. So much for proving those scouts wrong.
Game 2:
BYU:
========
- A sleeping giant that was finally awoken by 2nd year head coach Bronco Mendenhall, the Mormon Muscle, after they fired bozo reject Gary Crowden, who, ironicly, we'll discuss in a moment.
- Very solid coaching staff on both sides of the ball.
- Feared and underrated at their rank of 19th.
- Excellent quarterback in John Beck, and an excellent running-back in Curtis Brown.
- Beautiful uniforms.
OREGON:
=========
- I could go on about this all day. Oregon is like looking into a box of Poptarts, and seeing that someone ate one of them from the package, and stuck 1 Poptart back into the box for your disappointment. This is much like Oregon's program, and coincidentally enough, much like Mike Belloti's brain: you think there's 2 brain-cells, but really there is just 1.
- The media loves Oregon, and routinely tries their very best to make the Pac-10 a credible conference. What this means is, teams like Arizona State and Oregon are constantly given way more praise than they deserve. Especially Oregon. Oregon never wins big games, and always loses to terrible teams. They are probably the biggest joke in college football, with, you guessed it, a terrible coaching staff.
- When Crowden was justifiably fired by BYU, Mike Belloti thought he was a genius nonetheless. So he hired a failure to be his offensive coordinator. Great minds think alike, right? Very right. So all season, this year and last year, Gary Crowden did exactly what everyone knew he'd do: screw everything up. Gary Crowden was a hot coaching commodity when he was at Louisiana Tech. There's about 15 programs right now, including Notre Dame, who breathe a sigh of relief every time Crowden blows a game, which is every time the Ducks take the field. If you opened Gary Crowden's head, 3 lbs. of dogcrap would roll out onto the table.
- Incredibly overrated recruits.
- Insanely ridiculous uniforms, week to week.
THE CONTEST:
============
- Another wonderful match-up. BYU beat Oregon 38-8 last night, and boy does it feel good to be right, when you're right. That game was a complete disaster for Oregon, and only got worse in the second half. You know why? Because the Oregon coaching staff are a bunch of bush league amateurs who should honestly be coaching at the I-AA level. They could not win games if they had the talent at Ohio State this season. That BCS-level staff was totally embarrassed last night by a 2nd year coach who coaches in the Mountain West. John Beck slaughtered that overrated defense, and so did Curtis Brown. That Pac-10 contender offense put up 8 points, and once again, a coach looks like an idiot by playing a 2-QB system. FYI-- one of those kids in Ryan Leaf's brother. He played a hell of a game. Oh, and another thing... Oregon is such a powerhouse, right? there were about 15 Oregon fans at that game last night.
So hopefully as this bowl season moves forward, we will not have to watch idiotic match-ups like this. I didn't think BYU would win by 30, I figured 20, but it was a beautiful sight nonetheless. Until next time.