Buckeyes 69, Hokies 56

The ACC-Big Ten Challenge is underway, and the Bucks held up their end of the deal by beating last year's 4th-place ACC team, Virginia Tech (I know!). The team was pretty hot/cold, as in the Butler game, streaking to a 12-4 lead, then letting VT go on a 7-0 run. They closed the first half with a 15-2 run, and extended the lead to 21 points. The lead stayed a relatively comfortable 14-17 points for most of the early part of the 2nd half, until OSU decided to score 5 points over a 13-minute, 22-second span, letting the lead dwindle down to 57-54. The Bucks then closed the game with a 12-2 run in the final 3:00. Well why not.

Following are some interesting thoughts on the game, courtesy of Big Ten Wonk, with my reactions afterward:


"1. Ohio State is an NBA-style team in an NBA-style arena. Last night Bill Raftery said it just as Wonk was thinking it: everyone in an Ohio State uniform wants to create their own shots. Assists are passed (har!) by in Columbus. The Buckeyes were seventh in the conference last season (all games) in assists per field goal--a surprisingly low standing for a hard-core POT such as Thad Matta's team. Instead, it's all about spacing, isolations, and taking your man in the post (Terence Dials--see below) or off the dribble (everyone else).

And as for the venue, as its very name suggests Value City Arena is the college hoops equivalent of U.S. Cellular Field: a relatively new yet strikingly lifeless NBA-ish facility that represents an opportunity missed. If you're a Michigan or Indiana fan and your team plays in a horrible venue you can at least console yourself with the thought that said venue is old and will be replaced someday soon. Not so Value City."

First of all, I wouldn't go so far as to call the offense "NBA-style," although I was disheartened (Language nerd note: is there a counter to the word "disheartened"? Can one be "heartened"?) by how stagnant the offense looked at times, with the ball being swung around the perimeter with no apparent purpose, except maybe to get Dials the ball in the post, which is certainly an admirable goal. I mean, send a guy streaking through the lane or something, for Christ's sake. But more on that after the next point.

With regard to the arena, I have to grudgingly agree. Although the place certainly got loud back in the Redd/Penn and Brian/Boban/Brent (Brown, Savovic, and Darby, respectively) days, it is a strikingly passive and sterile environment most of the time. Is it still because there is no viable student section, save for the 30 or so kids behind one of the baskets? I don't know. But it bugs me.


"2. No Big Ten player has more of an impact on his team's offensive strategy than Terence Dials. When Dials is out of the game (as he was for 16 minutes last night, though foul trouble wasn't an issue--what was up with that?), Ohio State runs a traditional motion offense. (Pass, go down low, set a pick, post up, gesture madly for the ball, cycle back outside, lather, rinse, repeat.) But when Dials is on the floor the Buckeyes are a strict 1-4 team on offense. It's as if the three-point line is an electric fence and every non-Dials player is wearing one of those restrictive collars. The ball and the other four OSU players stay outside the arc until there's either a post feed or a three.

And Wonk's not so sure that should be the case. Your intrepid blogger is second to none in his praise for Dials, a hard-working undersized big man. But Matta runs the offense like Dials is the second coming of Bill Walton, Tim Duncan, or, um, Greg Oden. (Oliver Stone moment: so maybe this is all preparation for next year. Hmmm....)"

Dials certainly isn't the "second coming" of any of those fantastic players, but he has turned himself into a marvelously proficient low-post scorer, and I don't think there's any doubt that a 1-4 set, with Dials as the primary target, is the way to go. But I agree with Wonk that the other four players need to do a little bit more than stand around the perimeter. The spacing is fantastic (one thing that I noticed and really loved), and it really helps in getting Dials the ball. But PLEASE do something other than stand around while you swing the ball around the perimeter waiting to enter it into the post. Some choice triangle principles would help a lot, methinks...

Hang on, Kornheiser just said that if UCLA beats USC this weekend, UCLA should play Texas in the Rose Bowl. Oh man. That statement is going to strain his credibility regarding college football more than anything short of him saying "John L. Smith is the best coach in the Big Ten" possibly could. Yowsah...

Anyways, as for "times when Dials isn't out there," yes, a motion offense is the best bet. But when a team is in a situation like OSU would be -- namely, that the one guy who's out of the game is the one viable post player on your roster -- I've always figured that the flex would be the way to go. But that's just me.


"3. J.J. Sullinger is underrated--through no fault of Wonk, who gushes over the guy daily. Is there a reason why we never hear 'Sullinger' and 'NBA' in the same sentence? Here's a guy who's 6-5, built, shoots .446 on his threes, and rebounds like a tasmanian devil. That profile sounds an awful lot like Nick Anderson to Wonk. Is there a reason no one's talking about Sullinger in terms of 'the next level'? Just asking!"

I think this is a "stats don't tell the whole story" story. When you look at the facts Wonk presents, his argument seems valid. But have you ever watched a Buckeye game and thought "Man, that J.J. Sullinger looks like an NBA player"? If you're like me, the answer is, uh, "No." On a more analytical note, I think he can't handle the ball well enough to play guard in the NBA, and the odds of someone giving him a shot at being a 6'5" rebounding machine, in a league populated with 6'7-6'10" small forwards, are pretty damn small. Still, I guess it's something to think about.



To finish, it's finals time again. I'll be gone until they're done, except maybe to discuss this year's thebowl.challenge and who will be doing SOC notes for which early bowl games this year. You ready, Nips and Torgs?!?

Random thoughts from Nipsey

So I was totally going to post the following story from The Other Paper on the BLOG, but then Fu had to go and email it to everyone first. Anyway, great minds think alike, and here it is if you haven't seen it:

"Barring a major upset, logic tells us an Ohio State-Notre Dame Fiesta Bowl is a virtual lock.Of the BCS bowls, only the Fiesta gets to choose two teams, and it picks first and third. If you're Tempe, you're thinking two moves ahead as you select your first participant. Penn State, which is begging for a Fiesta invite, is a bad choice because the Orange Bowl will then grab Notre Dame, leaving the Fiesta with no intriguing opponent for the Lions. (An OSU-PSU rematch sounds interesting only in Columbus.) So the Fiesta takes Notre Dame, and the Orange—already hosting the ACC champ—grabs Penn State, a team with a great story and bowl-starved fans. The Fiesta then has OSU, Oregon and Auburn to choose from.Of those three, the Buckeyes bring the highest BCS rating, the biggest fan base and the most interest from neutral TV watchers. The Fiesta folks are insisting this is a tough call. They're just being polite."

Sounds good, though I'm not sure the Orange passes on us. Either way, I'm saying a BCS bid is looking "likely" at this point, and a BCS snub would look absolutely ridiculous. Oh, and am I the only one who watched the Stanford-ND game and was just salivating at the chance to take the Irish down a peg. A whole peg!

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In other news from the world of midwest football of the pointy variety, Nipsey's alma mater is once again in the Ohio Division III title game, for the 5th time in the last 10 years (won it all in 1997 & 1998, lost in 1996 & 2001 - though the 2001 game was lost on a bogus call). So good luck to the purple horseys as they take on undefeated Steubenville. The game's being televised live, which is nice, but kickoff is at 11 am on Friday, which is not so good. The toppings contain potassium benzoate. That's bad. Getting a crack at Steubenville is fine and all, but I was hoping to play the team they defeated, Akron Buchtel. Apart from making a name for themselves for spitting out San Antonio Pittman a couple of years ago, one of their assistant coaches was arrested a few days ago for possession of crack cocaine. Good for him.

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Don't look now, but the MWB's 2nd favorite basketball team has lost 3 straight. I'm still not worrying. Two were to top 10 teams and the other was in OT to LSU. Coach Beilein's just making sure the Neers don't look too dominant come March. That's Pittsnogle time. And remember, the Gansey Man Can!

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Good luck to the Bucks and the entire Big Ten as the Challenge begins tonight. For the love of God, can we just win this thing once?!

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Kick me, kike me, whatever....I'm out.

- Nips

Mountaineer Central: First Meaningful Game

Yes, the possibility was hinted at last March, and Dids and I will damn sure fulfill it: The MWB has henceforth adopted West Virginia and their lovable band of Fighting Pittsnogles as our official Team #2, behind Thad "Whole" Matta "Love"'s Buckeyes. "Sports bigamy!", you're crying? Hey, whatever - in that case, regardless of our religious affinity in non-sporting ventures, everyone here at The MWB is now a Sports Mormon. We gots two bitches! Deal with it.

Anyways, after a couple of creampuffs, the Pittsnogles faced their first true team last night, taking on #2 Texas (It bears mentioning: I have apparently fallen so far out of step with college basketball in general that I could only name one player on the #2 freaking team in the country. And it was Brad Buckman. Please, tell me I'm not a bad person. I could have sworn Royale Ivey was still out there) in the Guardians Classic.

There is good news and bad news. The good news is, the 'Snogles led for a significant portion of the game, and almost the entire second half. The bad news is, they lost, 76-75, in large part because, after taking a 75-72 lead with 1:00 to go, they missed three front ends of 1-and-1s, any one of which probably would have sealed the game. Aside from those misses, systemic problems with the defense remain: Beilein's 1-3-1 just doesn't get stops late, and worse, it allows too many put-backs at crunch time (both Texas field goals that brought them back from 72-75 to 76-75 were of the put-back variety), because of zone blah blah no-man-to-box-out blah.

In a more macro sense, though, one has to be happy with the fact that WV outplayed the #2 team in the country for a good 34 or 35 minutes. I was apprehensive that, although returning 4 starters and 2 out of their 3 most prominent bench players, the 'Snogles lost their only two big men who actually bothered to go inside on occasion (Tyrone Salley and D'Or Fisher). Someone named Frank Young has apparently stepped into the starting PF slot, and although he's listed at a Marcus Fizer-like 6'5" (which Fizer was, and don't let anyone tell you different, 6'8" listing be damned), he is averaging 11 pts and 6 boards a game thus far. So West Virginia is trotting out a starting lineup that goes 5'11", 6'4", 6'5", 6'5", 6'11, and the 6'11 guy just wants to shoot threes. Not quite 2000 Iowa State (6'1", 6'1", 6'3", 6'4", 6'8"), but close. Offensively, if the backdoor cuts are working, things should be okay. If they're not, this team is gonna sink or swim based on how well they're stroking the 3-ball. Defensively, Beilein's gotta get these runts boxing out, because getting outrebounded 40-19 is gonna kill you much more often than not.

Dids, Torgs, Nips, anyone see the game or its highlights? You think that was a foul on Gansey at the last second?

Preview Game Michigan Jobbie

Okay, so The Game. Preview, bloggy-style.

Like Todd E. Bear, I have to say that the game, while anal-cyst-able to a remarkably specific degree, comes down to one, maybe two factors: whether or not Troy Smith turns the ball over, and whether or not OSU stops the run.

These things both relate to turnovers, one obviously and one semi-obliquely. The Troy Smith part speaks for itself. The Michigan part, however, is also easily discernable.

(I feel that it's relevant to point that it is 11:00 p.m. the night before the game. Also, I'm drunk. The Diddy, Torgs, Nips, Kristin, and Al are all a mere few feet away from me, on the other side of the wall. Currently, they're engaging in an a cappela rendering of "Cherry Cherry" by Neil Diamond. Well, at least Al is. Anyway...)

If OSU is able to stop the run, as they did last year, they'll be able to force Michigan into obvious passing situations, and they'll be able to pin their ears back and go after Chad Henne (Chenne?). Being the sophomore that he is, Henne will make mistakes under such pressure. The question is, whether or not such pressure will be applied. (Not there, THERE!) Judicious blitzes and the creative use of Donte Whitner -- a formula which has worked thus far this year -- should hopefully be able to carry the day. Hopefully.

But, this is OSU-Michigan, and the game is a coin-flip. Why? Because it always is. OSU seems better on paper ... but Michigan is at home. Michigan is banged up (Mike Hart and Jake Long, among others) ... but they're a home underdog, and home 'dogs in this series have performed very well, historically. The game looks even on paper. What does that mean? Steve Breaston and Theodore Reginald Inge, Jr. have a chance to greatly affect an otherwise even game with their kick return abilities, and, of course ... turnovers and whoever runs the ball better are likely to decide the game. *Sigh* We'll see how it turns out...

It Looms....

Well kiddos, it's Michigan week. EEP!! Like the rest of you, I'm excited/frightened, bruised/juicy, matt jones/honkey//. Tragically, I'm required by the blog.net gods to give some anal-cyst and a prediction for The Game. Let's see where this takes us....

Let's be honest, there's one key to the game: Troy Smith. He's going to decide the game. Nothing like a good bit of pressure. Honestly, I still don't trust him. He's 6th in the country in passer rating. SIXTH!!! He trails only 3 heisman finalists, brian brohm, and default Texas Tech QB. I don't care. Everytime he goes back in the pocket I start sweating and eventually pee all over myself. I'm like Jeff full of Rum behind a shrub.

Troy is going to need some help. If the running game is working, Troy will play better due to easier coverages and such. San Antonio Pittman is everything I'd hoped he'd become this year, gaining weight and STILL hitting the hole hard. That makes him the anti-Lydown Loss. Good old "Flydell". He gained all the muscle and just wanted to hit the white girl's hole hard, which doesn't do much for me.

Things that scare me: Manningham. I hate him already. Plus, I don't trust our secondary. But holy crap, look at what they did against N'Western!?!? C'mon, who saw that coming? 7 points!! I think having played the Wildcats just a week before is a yooge help to them. Confidence is everything to the back 4.

Things that scare me: Dropped Picks. C'mon secondary, you HAVE to catch the ball. I think Henne is gonna try and force things. The D has to come away with those mistakes.

Things that scare me: We killed them last year + We're favored this year. Simply terrifying.

Here's what really scares me...The breakdown..

Running Game: Edge - OSU
The running backs are pretty much a push, but mobile QBs tend to give UM fits.

Passing Game: Edge - Push
OSU has more talent, but Troy likes to forget how to throw accurately.

Defense: Edge - OSU
The Bucks will shut down the UM ground game, can UM do the same to OSU?

Special Teams - OSU
Huston(fantastic) + Return game (probably best in OSU history) + Very solid punting = yooge

Intangibles - Push
UM at home vs. OSU confidence after they killed them last year vs. UM's motivation to beat OSU...errr.....
Intangibles - Michigan

Why does that scare me? If the turnover battle is net zero or even a slight UM advantage, I don't see any way OSU will lose. Is it possible Troy commits 5 fumbles? You bet, but not likely. Ummm...maybe not "super-likely" anyway.

What should happen....OSU pounds the vag with pittman, hits San Antonio Holmes/Gonzales for a couple big ones, solid special teams play, and OSU wins 34-20

What could happen...I still have no idea how Michigan beat Penn St. I have a bad feeling I'm gonna be saying the same thing about us Saturday afternoon. Troy has a mid-game lapse, a couple fumbles on returns, Manningham abusing the corners deep, and can't turn red zone trips into TDs: Michigan wins 24-19

What will happen...I'm gonna get drunk, most of the weekend. In fact, I hope I'm so "inebriated" that after I tear 17 ACLs I won't need to be "a-knee-brace-aided". ugh, that's awful, who's ready for a weekend full of those?!? This guy.

In summary of the OSU/Mich game, I have no idea how, but Michigan is going to win. It's like OSU is sitting there with pocket kings and the flop comes 7, 8, Q. Your opponent bets, and you just know you're beat. You have no idea how, but the loss is coming.

Other things in the world of football...
I'm honestly too angry to discuss Notre Dame. Everything about them...AHHHH!!!

Predicted BCS matchups...
Rose: USC vs. Texas
Orange: West Virginia vs. Miami
Fiesta: Notre Dame vs. Penn St
Sugar: Georgia vs. Oregon

Yes, it's the week of ... basketball previews?

In case any fellow OSU alumni missed out on it, highly observant and ricockulously prodigious (to steal a word from the man himself) Big Ten basketball blogger Big Ten Wonk recently posted his preview for the Buckeye hoops squadron. Rocket rocket. It can be located here, and is of Mr. Wonk's usual knowledgable and acerbic quality.

In other blogtasticular news, it's ... The Week. Yes, that week. Sadly, Dids and I will be unable to make a drunken pilgrimage to Mirror Lake in the middle of a heavy rainstorm this year, extending our drought to ... three years. Ouch. Anywho, MWB tradition (okay, that means last year) mandates that we do game previews. I might just be too _______ to do it, with the blank being any one, or a combination of, the following: "tired," "lazy," "busy working on outlines." But we'll see what happens as the week progresses.

Also, Kristin and I are excited because GOF comes out this week, the film version of what currently holds the title of "Jack Fu's Favorite Book in the Harry Potter Series" (seriously - I think it's on the back cover of a few of the reprints). Do yourself a favor and check it out.

In case anyone missed it...

Here is the photo circulating the web of Al and a select few other students at the Central Michigan-Toledo game two weeks ago. Al asked me to make sure that this picture made its way onto theblog.net. I was only too happy to oblige.
In case you can't pick him out, Al is the one brandishing the Staff of Victory (or something), which consists of a large stick wrapped in a CMU towel, with a CMU mug saran-wrapped onto the top. I humbly suggested that the mug be labeled the "Chippewa Chalice," but it's still pending approval.

The Patriots still own the universe

Gosh, who didn't see this one coming? Specifically, this ending:


"And yes, I know Indianapolis hasn't won a title since the Pacers prevailed in the 1973 ABA Finals, so fans there are still feeling this whole winning thing out, and it's easy to mistakenly believe you won the Super Bowl Monday night. But you didn't. Just remember, a lot can happen in three months. Injuries can happen. Bad breaks can happen. Teams can catch you at the wrong time, and your season can disappear just like that. So talk all the trash you want. Enjoy yourself. Hell, hum a few bars from "Footloose" if you're feeling it. Just be careful. After all, there's a reason Gus didn't e-mail me about that All-Madden championship until after he won.

Now if you'll excuse me, I'm going to take a little nap and rest my head on my three Patriots Super Bowl DVDs."


Wow, what an asshole.

An answer to Evan's (other) query

Not, not that one.

In case you don't remember, on the day after my birthday, Evan asked of me these questions three:


"1.) Can we officially remove the 'loyal reader/contributor' label from Todd?

2.) Which Ohio State offense was/is more frustrating to watch - 2002 or 2005?
Author's note: I contemplated limiting the comparison to the 2005 offense vs. 2002-without-Clarrett-in-the-line-up offense, but I decided against it. The offense was considerably more effective with Clarrett in the line-up, but I'll leave it to you to make or not make such a distinction as you see fit.

3.) Which Ohio State defense was/is better - 2002 or 2005?"


#1 I believe has been answered: We'd like to, but he shows up just often enough (approximately 1.5 times per month, I'd guess) that we have to still consider him a "reader/contributor."

(Upon further review, here are some more concrete stats:

Number of Todd posts in the last month: 5
Number of Todd posts in the previous 2 1/2 months: 5

So he's coming back, sort of. A little.)

(Also: While scrolling through old Todd posts, I came across this one, which it seems he had only designated as a "draft," and had subsequently forgotten about. It is a chronicling of his favorite Scooter moments, and a few other things. Being the conscientious poster I am, it has now been fully published for all to gawk at. Once again, link is here.)

So, onto the next two:


2.) I think the distinction Evan touched on does have to be made: the 2002 offense without Clarett was significantly more frustrating to watch than the 2005 version (especially now that the unit [huh] seems to be clicking a little better -- shit, even in the Michigan State game that got Evan so frustrated that he felt like making the post, the Bucks put up 394 yards on the Spartans, and since then OSU has put up over 40 in back-to-back road games). They struggled to score points and were bailed out by what was probably the best defense OSU has ever had (more on that later). Although I have to say, in response to something Dids said, that there was no shame in playing a tight game against Illinois in '02: it was a road game, a trap game (Michigan was the next week), and the Illini had turned on the burners and were playing very well late in the season, with Jon Beutjer, Brandon Lloyd, and the rest of the offense really clicking (people forget this, but this was the year after Illinois won the B10 title, and the only friggin' player they lost was Kurt Kittner -- they were the 2002 preseason pick to repeat by MANY prognosticators). In fact, they finished the season winning by 4 out of their last 5 (only loss was to OSU) and were coming off a 37-20 thrashing of Wisconsin up in Madison. No shame in letting that team play us close.

When comparing the '05 offense to the Clarett-included '02 offense, though, things get a little dicier. Clarett was a dominating college running back. He hit the hole hard, he had great vision and patience, and he was deceptively fast. When he was in games (and – and this is yooge – HEALTHY), the offense was completely different. The threat of Clarett busting one up the middle opened up play-action and gave the receivers more room to make plays on WR screens and the like. Everything looked better and more efficient. Better and more efficient than the ‘05 offense? Ugh. I guess I have to say ... no.

On the whole, this year’s offense has done an impressive job of moving the ball on every opponent we’ve played except Penn State. The only mitigating factor is the turnovers. This year’s team turns the ball over much more, and in more crucial situations, than their predecessors. In 14 games, the 2002 team turned the ball over a TOTAL of 17 times, finishing a so-magnificent-it’s-almost-stupid +13 on the season in turnover margin (more on that, you guessed it, later). Conversely, through a mere 8 games this year, the offense has turned the ball over 15 times, including 11 lost fumbles. So the question of "which offense was/is more frustrating to watch?" I think has to be answered thusly, from "most frustrating" to "least frustrating": 1.) 2002 without Clarett, 2.) 2005, 3.) 2002 with Clarett. Now, if you want to argue "effectiveness" or "worth" or something other than "frustration," that list might be different. But that’s my answer.

3.) About the defense: it is my personal opinion that the 2002 defense was the best in OSU history. I don’t know how many of them would make the two-deep on a "best individual defenders in OSU history" roster, but as a whole, it’s difficult-to-impossible to find a unit that stood up to so much adversity and so many good offensive teams, and was still able to truly dominate. Best the question at hand is to compare the ‘02 defense with the ‘05 edition of the Silver Bullets, so ... I’ma gonna do that.

DL: Here’s where I think the biggest difference is, and it’s probably the biggest reason I think the ‘02 D was superior. I love this year’s starters. I really do. But Darrion Scott, Kenny Peterson, Tim Anderson, and Will Smith, with Simon Fraser and David Thompson as the most significant subs ... I mean, that’s a Murderer’s Row. They dominated to the point of legitimately changing games; their dominating performance against the vaunted Miami OL was the single-biggest reason we won that game. Quite frankly, you can’t say enough about that group. So I’m not going to try.

LBs: Yes, this year’s group is probably the best in OSU history. They’re fantastic in all phases. Again, enough can’t be said to do them justice. But they aren’t so much better than the ‘02 LBs that they can overcome comparative deficiencies elsewhere. If given the choice between taking Hawk, Schlegel, and Carpenter or Grant, Wilhelm, and Reynolds, I would take the former. But I would have to think longer about that than I would if given the same Sophie’s Choice between the two DLs. And yes, some of this may be attributable to my semi-unnatural man-love for Grant and Wilhelm. I don’t care. Those guys were AWESOME.

DBs: Ashton Youboty is good, but he’s no Chris Gamble (or, I should say, no MOTIVATED Chris Gamble. Because it’s pretty common knowledge that Gamble dogged it the entire 2003 season), and, despite Dustin Fox’s flaws, we haven’t had a 2nd corner step up and be as solid as he was in ‘02. Malcolm Jenkins may get there, but we haven’t seen enough yet. Similarly, Salley and Whitner are rock-solid, but can they honestly compare favorably with the dynamite safety tandem of Mike Doss and Donnie Nickles? They come close, maybe even REALLY close, but not quite. Throw in Will Allen as the nickel man and, quite frankly, it’s a race that was competitive, but fairly easily won by ‘02.

OVERALL: You can’t argue with how clutch the ‘02 defense was. Those guys had balls of friggin’ steel. Would Texas have scored on those guys with under 5:00 left? No way. That team made stops and made plays at a wildly frequent rate, despite being routinely put in more uncomfortable positions than Shannen Doherty in the back of a Volkswagen. Plus, there’s the turnovers. In those 14 games, they had 30 takeaways. That’s simply obscene, and it helped the offense out immeasurably (actually, it’s probably measurable, but I don’t feel like doing it). I have to go with the ‘02 defense ahead of ‘05. And it was difficult, though not as much as I thought it would be.

(Sidenote: this isn’t even counting special teams in any of these analyses. Huston and Trapasso are good, maybe even very good. But Andy Groom and Mike Nugent were flat-out gamechangers. I’ve never seen a punter have more of a concrete impact on games than The Boom. Case in point: the ‘02 PSU game, when the O was pinned inside the 5 in the fourth quarter, and The Boom bailed everyone out with a punt that traveled 60 yards in the air, with enough hangtime that the coverage team got down there and the returner had to fair-catch it. The man was unreal. And really, nothing needs to be said about The Nuge. He was, was ... NUUUGE!!)

Numbered thoughts

1) I really enjoyed Fui's cavalcade this week is which he kept mentioning Michael Vick and Wellington Mara's death. B\c he's right on, that's what is was like trying to watch the V-Tech game or the NFL this past weekend

2) Am I the only one who loves the fact the computer are involved in the BCS?? Honestly, if they switched to a plus 1 system, I think that would be perfect. People are complaining that the computers are screwing it up, FALSE. The single biggest factor in the BCS is where you start the season ranked, unless you're notre dame. Has anyone else noticed that ND is 9th in the human polls and 22nd in the computer average? I'm still trying to figure out how they're gonna get this team in the BCS. They want to. If you compare OSU to ND as to who the better 2 loss team is, the bucks are CLEARLY better.

3) I heard someone say that the Texas win over Ohio St. doesn't look as impressive now as it did earlier in the year. My head exploded.

4) My vote right now is Ohio St. vs. UCLA in the Fiesta Bowl. Oh, I would love to stick it to them and make everyone shutup. This UCLA team is crap.

5) I've been hearing that the ACC and PAC-10 are CLEARLY the best two conferences this year. Guess what Pac-10, when all your good wins are against your own conference, that doesn't work. I think we'll see some more reasonable results once bowl season gets here.

6) With Miami-VTech and Penn St-Wisky this week, expect Ohio St. to really be the computer darlings when the BCS is released next week.

7) Marcus Vick - I actually think the guy is really good. He's better than the elder Vick. The problem is, Mike Vick is basically considered the savior of man with herpes.

8) Wisconsin is crap, and Penn St is much better than I realized. The kitties should have ZERO trouble with wisky this week. That's why I'm picking the badgers to win by 14.

9) If I had a vote in a major poll, there's no way I could vote Notre Dame higher than Penn St. and live with myself.

10) USC is going to play UCLA and they're both gonna be unbeaten and ranked in the top 5. Who wants to guess the early spread on this game?? Right now, I bet it'll be around 14, but it should be about 20. I'd like to see the last time two top 5 teams met in Novemeber and one team was favored by 3TDs