The 2009 Official College Football Thread (post-season -- BIG 12 IMPLOSION!!!)

[Hidden Character]

Yassur, ladies and gents, it's almost about that time once again where campus gridiron is all the rage as we embark on the 2009 college football season. So many questions and stories about the upcoming season are swirling around the big cities and small towns like:

Why did Spurrier snub Tebow for the All-SEC First Team?

Will someone end USC's dominance of the Pac-10?

Can Ohio St. win a game in January?

Is this Weiss' final year at Notre Dame if he can't come through?

Could Lane Kiffin actually back up his bark with his bite at Tennessee?

Where will this year's mid-major BCS contender hail from?

Can Bowden get those daggum 10+ wins back from the NCAA violations this season?

Can Texas Tech do it again?

Will my beloved Hurricanes matter again?

Can Michigan even have a winning season?

Should Auburn have gone w/Turner Gill of Buffalo instead of Gene Chizik of Iowa State?

How close is Butch Davis leading UNC to the ACC Championship now that FSU, Miami, and VA Tech have been either stagnant or just slipping?

All these questions and so much more to discuss as get closer to the start of season as some teams are already prepared to make a deep run whereas others see their window of opportunity closing rather quickly.

 

[Lets Gekiga In]

Will UCF not suck as bad this year?

Hopefully.

Also, we got our black jerseys back this year.

 

[Hidden Character]

ALL SEC ALL THE TIME.

De facto TV network will push SEC even further ahead of competitors

*A new 15-year, $2.25 billion contract with ESPN starting this season, along w/a 15-year, $825 million deal with CBS.

* A customized "SEC ESPN" on-screen logo.

*The rights to air Jefferson Pilot/Raycom noon games as well as Fox Sports South and CSS.

* Each SEC school will make $17 million per year from the deal.

*Potential to show 365 SEC events a year with the added exposure to college basketball.

So....how do you feel about this monopoly for that will take place for the next 15 years?

 

[Loopz]

LOL.

Bobak's gonna be mad agaaaaaaain.

Anyhoo...down here in Tucson, we're feeling pretty good about our Wildcats. They're coming off their first bowl win in a decade, and there's still plenty of talent on both sides of the ball. The $64,000 question is at quarterback, since Willie Tuitama has left the building and we have a potential two-headed QB situation, with one newbie being a much better pocket passer, and the other being much more of a ground threat.

BEAR DOWN, ARIZONA!

 

[Lets Gekiga In]

Are Pac-10 and other western conferences finally going to show games at decent hours for us on the East coast? That'd help your exposure right there.

 

[aria]

I'm annoyed because I'm missing the first weekend of the season. While its not a major USC game (a tune up against San Jose State), the first week or two is where you see some dramatic "upsets" as teams that were overhyped tank and potential Cinderella teams start to rise.

I made it to six games the past two seasons, I doubt I'll reach that level this season --but I'm going to try.

USC is breaking an interesting new QB, Aaron Corp, who should start. He wasn't the expected choice a year ago to replace Sanchez, but his work ethic and consistency pushed him past Mitch Mustain (who had a 6-0 record as the starter at Arkansas in '06) and super-frosh Matt Barkley (who was actually placed at #2 in the depth chart last spring... despite arriving as an early HS grad). Corp is different than the previous Palmer-Leinart-Booty-Sanchez line in that he's actually mobile --I can't remember the last time USC had a QB that was a run threat.

They get to work out the kinks against San Jose State, then go play for keeps in the Horseshoe... Oh, I will be trying my damnedest to be there

Bobak's gonna be mad agaaaaaaain.

Nah, HC asked me to start it and I told him go ahead --because he wasn't Loopz

 

[aria]

Let the side-show of embarrassment begin --full speed ahead!!!

[this article does a great job with portraying the slide into total awkwardness]

July 30, 2009
Hawaii football coach uses homosexual slur in reference to Notre Dame
By Dan Hinxman

SALT LAKE CITY – Second-year Hawaii football coach Greg McMackin said Notre Dame players engaged in a “little faggot dance” when describing a banquet the night before the Hawaii Bowl last December.

McMackin, speaking at the Western Athletic Conference’s annual football media preview on Thursday morning, said the teams gathered the night before the game for a banquet when Irish coach Charlie Weis introduced the players and a ritual they do.

“I know most of the coaches in the country are rooting for us to beat Notre Dame,” McMackin said. “Charlie gives this talk, ‘We do something special at Notre Dame,’ and (the players) get up and they do this little cheer ... this little faggot dance.”

McMackin said he felt he made a mistake that night by then having the Hawaii players do a Ha’a, a ritual Polynesian dance that McMackin believed made the Irish players take notice and got them to play at a higher level the following day. Notre Dame won, 49-21.

After describing the dances, McMackin asked reporters not to write about his defamatory comments. WAC commissioner Karl Benson was in the room.

“Don’t write that ‘faggot’ down. I was misquoted,” he said. “Just please … cover for me,” McMackin said. “Go ahead, say ‘faggot dance.’ No. Please cover for me on that, too — right Karl? I’ll deny it. Anything else?”

About 15 minutes after McMackin left the room, he returned and added, “I want to officially, officially apologize. Please don’t write that statement I said as far as Notre Dame. The reason is I don’t care about Notre Dame. But I’m not a … I don’t want to come out and have every homosexual ticked off at me. You know what I mean, because I don’t have any problem with homosexuals. But I apologize for saying that and I’d appreciate it if you wouldn’t run that word. If you said ‘dance,’ that’s OK. But don’t use the bad term that I chose, please. Thank you.”

Late Thursday morning, McMackin and WAC officials held a press conference where McMackin again stressed his regrets.

“I would sincerely like to apologize for the inappropriate verbage or words that I used,” he said. “You know, a couple things. I have nothing against the University of Notre Dame. I don’t talk like that. And I’m really ticked off at myself for saying that. I don’t have prejudices, and it really makes me mad that I said that. I’m really disappointed in myself.

“I know there are a couple of you that know me. I’m a very competitive person. I think I told you guys that was my worst loss in my 40-year career at Notre Dame. It ticks me off that I said that because Notre Dame played a great ballgame.

What I was trying to do was be funny, and it wasn’t funny, and it’s not funny. Even more, it isn’t funny to me. I was trying to make a joke and it was a bad choice of words. And I really, really feel bad about it.

“I’m going to apologize to my team. I’m going to apologize to the people in Hawaii. … I hope some of you guys know me well enough to know what I’m saying. All I can do is apologize. I feel bad that I used those words. It was really stupid.”

Benson also addressed the media.

“I don’t think there’s a lot to say from a conference standpoint,” he said. “This primarily will be a University of Hawaii issue. There is a sportsmanship piece in our code that may apply, and at the appropriate time we will address it.”

The nine coaches’ interviews Wednesday and Thursday were recorded on WAC.TV for use on the conference’s Web site, wacsports.com. Benson said that McMackin’s conference was not posted and added that he did not know if it will be posted.

“Obviously his remarks were offensive, and he showed his sincerity in the last couple minutes in terms of his regret,” Benson said. “I don’t know if there is any useful purpose for us to put those remarks on the Internet.”

In case anyone forgot, this is what their famous for:
http://www.youtube.com/v/0pCZ5RkhJkY


--------

Also, here's another reason why JoePa rules:

http://www.hailtotheorange.com/2009/7/28/966739/please-dont-ever-retire-joe-paterno

 

[Hidden Character]

Urban Meyer hits payday with 6-year, $24 million contract extension through 2015

With this, Urban becomes the highest paid head coach in the SEC and state employee in Florida, just behind USC's Pete Carroll and Notre Dame's Charlie Weiss, for reasons I still can't figure out for that overrated, ancient program.

 

[aria]

Urban Meyer hits payday with 6-year, $24 million contract extension through 2015

With this, Urban becomes the highest paid head coach in the SEC and state employee in Florida, just behind USC's Pete Carroll and Notre Dame's Charlie Weiss, for reasons I still can't figure out for that overrated, ancient program.

It just hasn't been the same since they lost the ol' ball coach. With the Redskins going on that crazy Superbowl dynasty, its almost impossible to imagine the time when Florida was relevant.

 

[aria]

From "Hey Jenny Slater", another decent blog (that's currently covering for EDSBS which is on a vacation):

Anyhoo. This week's +5: Five Dudes Who Would Make Awesome Cool Uncles. This is not to express any dissatisfaction with my current uncles, who are all excellent individuals; I'm just saying, if you had an opening for a new uncle and wanted someone cool to fill the uncular role of someone who shows you all the stuff your parents refuse to let you do, these would be good ones.

[. . .]

Pete Carroll
You can kind of infer just from Carroll's now-infamous Twitter feed that he'd be the kind of awesome, laid-back guy whose company you could always seek as a refuge from your own uptight asshole parents. When they're busting your balls about your grades suffering or why haven't you found a nice girl to settle down with or whatever, just take off for Casa de Carroll, where Uncle Pete is always willing to put on some Stones, hand you a Sweetwater 420, and give you some relentlessly upbeat advice about how to find the joy in life again. And I don't know how or why I know this, but I have a strong hunch that Carroll is a Wii owner, and that he's a Shaolin master at Mario Kart. (His favorite character is Yoshi, and he'll wipe the floor with you.)

 

[Hidden Character]

USA TODAY Preseason Coaches Poll:
1. Florida (53)
2. Texas (4)
3. Oklahoma (1)
4. USC (1)
5. Alabama
6. Ohio State
7. Virginia Tech
8. Penn State
9. LSU
10. Mississippi
11. Oklahoma State
12. California
13. Georgia
14. Oregon
15. Georgia Tech
16. Boise State
17. TCU
18. Utah
19. Florida State
20. North Carolina
21. Iowa
22. Nebraska
23. Notre Dame
24. Brigham Young
25. Oregon State

Others Receiving Votes:
Kansas 138, Michigan State 136, Texas Tech 114, Cincinnati 90, Pittsburgh 64, West Virginia 55, Rutgers 51, Miami (FL) 46, Missouri 44, Illinois 38, Clemson 30, South Carolina 18, UCLA 14, Auburn 12, South Florida 11, Nevada 11, Kentucky 9, North Carolina State 7, Wisconsin 6, Arkansas 6, Northwestern 5, Southern Miss 4, Wake Forest 4, Arizona 3, Boston College 3, CENTRL MICHIGAN 3, East Carolina 3, Colorado 2, Maryland 2, Navy 2, Tennessee 2, TROY 1, Minnesota 1, Michigan 1, Houston 1.



Notre Dame ranked as the 23rd best team in the nation? Not even former Clemson head coach Tommy Bowden can believe it.

 

[famicommander]

3 Mountain West schools in the preseason polls. That's what I'm talking about.

But I think they got the order wrong. Brigham Young is winning the MWC, I think. And I also think they're going to give Oklahoma a hell of a game to start the season off.

It's a joke that the Big East, Big Ten, and ACC get BCS births and the Mountain West doesn't. TCU, Utah, and BYU were better than any team from those three conferences last year.

The Mountain West should absorb Boise State, Fresno State, and Tulsa. That would give them twelve teams and a conference title game. Then there'd be no way to deny them an automatic BCS birth.

Also, Colorado State will beat Colorado in the Rocky Mountain Showdown, and I'll rub it in my brother's face.

 

[aria]

3 Mountain West schools in the preseason polls. That's what I'm talking about.

But I think they got the order wrong. Brigham Young is winning the MWC, I think. And I also think they're going to give Oklahoma a hell of a game to start the season off.

It's a joke that the Big East, Big Ten, and ACC get BCS births and the Mountain West doesn't. TCU, Utah, and BYU were better than any team from those three conferences last year.

The Mountain West should absorb Boise State, Fresno State, and Tulsa. That would give them twelve teams and a conference title game. Then there'd be no way to deny them an automatic BCS birth.

That probably won't happen, even with 12 teams and a conference championship. The conference is way too top heavy. AFA, Wyoming, UNM Colorado State (which had a great run for a few years), UNLV and --one of the biggest underachiever in all of sports-- SDSU are just too inconsistent.

I would still take the Big 10, Big East or ACC schools over a regular MWC member.

The best hope is for those bright three to do what many of them have already done in the past and join another conference: Utah/BYU to round out a Pac-12 (highly unlikely since the Pac-10 doesn't want to expand). TCU would be trickier: either the Big 12 would be willing to have an odd number in one division (like the MAC) or the Big 10 finally gets over ND would lure Iowa State or Nebraska (oddly enough the Pac 10 has considered luring Colorado and Nebraska in the past), leaving the Big 12 to fill a spot that would best fit TCU, which was a "big conference" team in the past like SMU (which never recovered from the death penalty... good luck Coach Jones). Heck, I remember when TCU jumped from the WAC to CUSA to the MTW.

Tulsa... right. Look, they had a handful of good years after years of just awful football. Fresno State and Boise State would make good additions to the MTW.

 

[SetaSouji??]

ASU is gonna smash Michigan again.

 

[aria]

I had to look closer at the USA Today Top 10, specifically the points:

1. Florida (53) 0-0
1,466

2. Texas (4) 0-0
1,386

3. Oklahoma (1) 0-0
1,358

4. USC (1) 0-0
1,321

5. Alabama 0-0
1,134

6. Ohio State 0-0
1,126

7. Virginia Tech 0-0
1,020

8. Penn State 0-0
988

9. LSU 0-0
917

10. Mississippi 0-0
889

As I expected, 2/3/4 are very close --its hard to pick between the three and Florida is a safe vote at #1, though I don't think they're going to repeat (Harvin was a big loss). What is with LSU and Ole Miss at 9/10? Seriously? Did anyone see LSU play last season? Granted, they probably can recover quickly, but Ole Miss? Okay, so Nutt had some success in the latter half, but I'd say slow down on the top-10 rankings!

USC-Ohio State looks like a great game (on paper) again!

Below the top-10 you get a mix of teams that coaches expect to be good and teams that --when they run out of teams they know-- they pick because they sound good either from hearing them talked about by an assistant/fan/player or that they thought were awesome when they were kids...

 

[aria]

ASU is gonna smash Michigan again.

Huh? I don't think Appy's ever going to get another shot.

 

[Hidden Character]

Huh? I don't think Appy's ever going to get another shot.

No, but Delaware St. has their shot this year. Go Hornets!

Also, Ole Miss must be that funk to be ranked #10.

 

[aria]

Random tidbits of amusement:

USC's getting in the Pete Carroll Spirit:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1T2QRpmjRmQ

Meanwhile, VT thought these photos were a good idea:

http://www.everydayshouldbesaturday.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/08/hokieshi.jpg

And the folks at Miss State are ready for Ole Miss --despite having lost the previous year 45-0 and gaining a total of 37 yards.

The Motor City Bowl may become something else... possibly involving Little Caesar's...

Oklahoma and Army have scheduled a home and home for the unprecedented far future of 2018/2020. The sad thing is you can probably go ahead and pencil the W for the Sooners...

Lou Holtz is looking into running as a Republican in a Central Florida Congressional District. He's denying it now, of course (in intentionally open language), but its too late Lou. It's not that we didn't know which side you'd bat for --god knows you let it come out sometimes during ESPN, but I want to see Palin/Holtz 2012, mostly because I want to see Obama reelected.

 

[aria]

We have a new inductee into the All-Name Team:


God's Power Offer


Seriously.

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2009/writers/andy_staples/08/03/recruit-names/index.html?eref=T1

 

[aria]

More from the variety grab-bag of general awesomeness:

Never realized this before, but Clausen is sort of a guido:

Here's Charlie doing his impressions of Merc, just for good measure:

Meanwhile:

South Carolina, Illinois, Tennessee and a number of other football programs are sending letters to recruit Ryan Miller, a 6′2″, 165 pound track runner and trumpet player. The problem is (as you can probably guess from those numbers), he's the wrong guy who happens to share the same name with a bona fide stud at another school:

http://www.thestate.com/morris/story/903795.html

In more proof that God has a cruel sense of humor:

Half of Duke's roster has had to miss major parts of Fall camp because of suspected Swine Flu. The good news is they actually had enough players for a 60-play scrimmage last Saturday morning. Then again, this is Duke so they'll probably ready for the Detroit Lions come September. Oh shit, wait--I'm reading from USC's pre-season report...

http://blogs.newsobserver.com/accnow/cutcliffe-discusses-teams-bout-with-h1n1

 

[Hidden Character]

Good for that trumpet player kid as I'm sure it felt good to be the BMOC for once, even if it was a severe error.

 

[aria]

Good for that trumpet player kid as I'm sure it felt good to be the BMOC for once, even if it was a severe error.

I bet the actual football players on campus are giving him shit.

Depending on how well they know each other, it could be brutal:

"Hey Miller, think fast!"
"Wha--"
[Gets tackled by a 6'4", 250 lb guy]

 

[Hidden Character]

I bet the actual football players on campus are giving him shit.

Depending on how well they know each other, it could be brutal:

"Hey Miller, think fast!"
"Wha--"
[Gets tackled by a 6'4", 250 lb guy]

True, but if he's good friends w/them, he could rub it in to those that didn't make it college or even get a chance to walk-on......Yeah, no good can really come of this.

 

[lithy]

It's the most wonderful time of the year!

It's the hap, happiest season of alllllll!

 

[Hidden Character]

Starting off the 2009 season is South Carolina over NC State 7-3.

Edit: While currently watching the Oregon-Boise St. game, I found this:Dress up The Oregon Ducks