2008 NCAA Football Season

The Ohio State spring game is this Saturday and I am very happy. I can't wait for the season to actually start so we can lose the championship game...again.

Speaking of that I have an open invitation from one of the high mucky mucks at my wife's company to attend a game in Tuscaloosa. I'm hoping to take him up for the 4th of Oct.

The last time "we" played in Tuscaloosa we got a royal ass raping by the officials. You know one of those that result in a letter from the SEC office "We're sorry for how we fucked that up. Kiss our ass we probably had money on the point spread...." type of deals that gets filed away in a warehouse in Lexington eerily similar to the one from Raiders.

Our defense, for the first time in a long time, should be legit SEC caliber. We got the Secondary, linebackers (even without our heart and soul Woodyard I think our athletcism will suprise if Micah has made the steps people have been saying he has in the Spring) and at least Strongside DE that can compete with the best in the SEC. We just got to get health and production from everybody else on the DL.

Offense is going to be a huge ? in terms of QB, WR and TE. I like our OL and our run game. *Homerism Rant Alert* We got us a legit SEC stable of RB's. Derrek Locke is going to own people this year. *End Homerism Rant* Dicky's our only reliable threat returning and he's a slot/possession guy. Kyrus Lanxter has potential but he's green as hell and everybody's looking for Aaron Boyd to come in and make a big splash. God knows what's going to happen on the QB front. Hartline and Pulley are taking turns looking crappy/brilliant this Spring.

Bancroft Agee, get those damn " out of your we. College football fans have the right...no, the duty, to include themselves in all team talk.

Ordered my season tickets a few weeks ago. Here are some highlights of our home games:

Colorado - in Jacksonville
Va Tech
Clemson
Boston College
Florida

I plan on going to the away game at Ga Tech as well since it's local for me. I can't wait! FSU had their Garnet and Gold game this past weekend. The Offense was predictably mediocre but the Defense was outstanding. The upcoming QB battle is very, very interesting and our OL needs some serious work once again. They're actually counting on the incoming Freshmen OL. Uh oh....

You're right and I apologize. Damn it, I enjoy living and dying vicariously through college athletes!

By the by I forever thank Papa Bowden for scapegoating Jimmy Heggins. He's been huge in the turnaround of our football program. Of course, a dead penguin would have been an improvement over Paul Dunn.

FSU home slate is gravy this year. Boston College, Clemson, Va. Tech, and Florida to mention a few. I'm probably going to either BC or Clemson, VT, and Western Carolina(! My wife is an alum).

I'm about to order my 2008 Penn State season tix and, unfortunately, things aren't looking much better than last season. We lost our stud linebacker, Sean Lee, to an ACL tear on Friday and Paterno, despite being in the final year of his contract, refuses to announce an exit strategy. I love the guy (and whole heartedly believe that he's earned the right to step down when he's ready), but throw a dog a bone. Give the fans--more importantly, give the new recruits--an idea of what to expect down the road. On a brighter note, however, Anthony Morelli's gone, paving the way for, I hope, a less vanilla quarterbacking scheme.

Oh, well. We. Are. Penn. State.

Our home schedule? Eh, not bad.
August 30- Coastal Carolina (Home)
September 6- Oregon State (Home)
September 20- Temple (Home)
September 27- Illinois (Home)
October 18- Michigan (Home)
November 15- Indiana (Home)
November 22- Michigan State (Home)

14 weeks until the season starts and I am already excited. Luckily I have a couple babies coming soon so I won't have much time to think about it until it is here.

I imagine Cassady and I will have a lot of interesting things to respond to this season. Bring it motherfuckers.

Haven't seen GFC around the boards much lately. I hope he makes it back for the annual playoff debate. Bets on who starts it this year?

I couldn't find last years college football thread so I want to find out the teams we all root for. I'm a Big Ten fan, Ohio State and Wisconsin, and I see Mattioli is a Penn Stater. Owen and Bancroft are 'Bama and Kentucky fans, respectively, and we have Martianman and Smails rooting for Florida State. What other teams do you people follow/stalk?

Edit: I won't start the playoff debate because I typically like the way the BCS works out.

Here's the thread, although existing posts after October were lost due to the revamp. Your one-stop shop for Chud college loyalties.

I'm a Michigan guy, so I root for them and the Big Ten mainly. Lots more OSU-ers than UM-ers around here, just so you know.

Thanks for the thread link. So what do you think about the Wolverines this year? I try to avoid reading too much about them because it always makes me start hating* them less. I was always a fan of Carr but I am interested in how the team is going to work with Rich Rod, who I really don't care for.

*I don't actually hate UM but as an Ohio State fan, saying otherwise can get my ass kicked.

If I think about this too much I'm just going to get angry again, but Rich Rod got off on the wrong foot with me by basically running Ryan Mallett out of town. Mallett's a gamer. You could see it any time he came into games; he'd get out there and start barking at his guys, herding them to where they needed to be. He didn't always make the best throw, but he's ready-made to play in prime time. And the idea that he couldn't run the spread is bullshit. Rod's run-heavy scheme is just a variant. Mallett would have no problem slinging it around wherever it needed to go. And the kid's got a cannon. It wouldn't have mattered quite so much to me if Rod had a reasonable back-up plan, but he put all his eggs in the Terrelle Pryor basket. All of them. You've got Mallett, a QB with star quality who obviously knows what he's doing, and you just let him walk away without a credible replacement (Stephen fucking Threet? Are you kidding me?), just on the hope that you'll land the kid you thinks fit better. To me that was inexcusable.

On the whole it'll be weird because it's clear that he wants to reform the team from the ground up, base it on speed rather than power. That's why Boren quit. Nevermind that family crap. He quit because he didn't like the changes Rod was making. He didn't want to throw up six times a day from running drills. The interesting thing will be seeing how it plays in the league, because the Big Ten is built much differently than the Big East. Big Ten teams are maulers, lots of the match-ups week to week are power against power along the lines. That's got me a little worried inasmuch as Rod seems to want to build the team to contend nationally (better team speed to contend with the SEC, USC, etc), when he's still got to contend within his own league. I think when he gets his own players in there it'll be fine, but I think that 1) it's going to be ugly this year, and 2) I worry how well the smaller players will fair over the course of the season. Look at what's happened with the Bears in the last couple years. Lovie built a smaller, faster defense, and while they're ball hawks they've had trouble staying energized towards the end of seasons after getting punched in the mouth all year.

I do think that Rod will have a much-improved defense this year. I'm excited about kids like Donovan Warren.

Rod stikes me as the kind of guy that will not take anything short of exactly what he sees in his head. He believed Pryor would be his QB and didn't give a crap about anyone else on the team in that position. He will work with what he has but we won't change his plan for anyone or anything. I might be proven wrong after a couple games but I think he is going to come out and run plays that the team was not designed to run. If the majority of kids on your team were picked for reason A and you design your team's play with reason B in mind bad things are bound to happen.

I think you are right about the quicker, smaller players coming up against late season trouble. In a conference where the size is similar to what you are putting out there it will work fine. In the big, slow Big Ten those guys have got to be more likely to get hurt.

FSU just got a big break. Our star WR/RB/All Around Stud Preston Parker had his felony arrest reduced to a couple of misdemeanors. And who among us doesn't have a few of those? Right?!? Come on....err...Bueller...Voodoo economics....

Anyway, Saint Bobby (nikname given not because he's a saint but because he's closer to saints in age than normal humans) and the new AD have given him a 2 game suspension and put all kinds of conditions on his schooling. Honestly, I hear he's a good kid so I'm not displeased with the reduction and keeping him on the team. And since our first two games are SE University of the Blind and Leper U he shouldn't miss much.

As an FSU fan I'm really looking forward to the upcoming QB battle. Our backup, Ponder, is threating last year's quasi-starter for the starting QB this fall. Awesome, I love competition.

Ah, yes, I look forward to seeing Tennessee yet again fail to reach a BCS bowl.

Tim Tebow will run for less but win more.

I hope.

Oddly enough, I hope Tebow runs more and wins less. Weird.

No, that's not odd at all. Everyone else wants him to run so they can get the "big lick" on him. Urban's offense has been pretty good for the last two years. Think of how scary good it would be with even just a decent RB-driven run game.

He'll make a great tight end in the NFL.


I know it's been said but let me continue:

Fuck Tim Tebow.

Yeah, fuck Tim Tebow and his 375 yard drives.

http://sports.espn.go.com/ncf/news/story?id=3415297

I'm slowly starting to feel the same way about Tebow that I felt about Manning while he was in Knoxville; utter and vile contempt at every mention of his name.

So, Rodriguez is paying WVU its 4 mil settlement. I'm not sure if I really even care but what do you guys think?

Edit: Forgot to mention my wife, an OSU alum, got us tickets to the Troy game the week after USC. If OSU beats USC the campus is going to be absolutely crazy.

So, here's the deal: I can have tickets to Austin City Limits this year. Unfortunately, this coincides with an 8:00 pm ABC telecast of the Penn State - Illinois game (which is at the Beav and, for which, I have season tickets). ACL promises some high times down in Texas, but, for better or worse, I bleed blue and white. What do I do?

I would probably got to ACL but I see your problem. Since you have season tickets for Penn State I don't think missing one game would be as big of a deal.

On the other hand, how dare you even think about not attending that game?

I have FSU season tix, and I'm lucky if I make 2 games a year (I live in Atlanta). I'm definitely going to home opener vs. my wife's alum, and I was going to hit the Va. Tech game, but I think I have a conflict. BC is close to my birthday, and I usually go the game around my birthday, so I may end up at that one.

I can't wait for that OSU-USC game the second week of the year. Go Bucks!

As a huge WVU fan (also big fan of Penn State... Go Lions!) and with family involved with the school, I am very happy to see this turn of events.

I don't appreciate the major hatred for Hot Rod, but I do understand the disappointment that some of our fans have with him. He promised to stay here, signed a big contract, and as soon as WVU lost to (eat shit) Pitt, he left like a thief in the night for the major school.

People want to say that he made the right decision, which may be true as well, but the manner in which he left was disappointing and hurtful to the WVU fans and students including the team itself.

I would have personally understood Coach Rod leaving after the season for Michigan, but his immediate departure from the team after their loss to Pitt (and before the bowl game) was uncalled for.

So we have just over a month until College ball starts and a certain Bengals QB has the more annoying part of Ohio State fandom in an uproar. Since the story of Palmer's radio appearance started every local news station and news paper have run articles about it. It is absolutely mind-numbing. The dude went to USC, of course he will be cheering them on. Everytime some moron complains about how since Palmer now lives in Ohio he should respect our teams I want to punch them in their toothless faces. We complain about fanboys on this site a lot but sweet jesus it's ten times worse when half the states population acts like Carson Palmer just Three Stooges eye-poked their mothers.

SEC Media Days!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Fulmer being a dick, Spurrier cracking wise about Fulmer being a dick, Tebow doing his best Beatles impression, Tommy Tubberville still pissed about not being cast as The Scarecrow in Batman Begins, and nobody giving a fuck about Rich Brooks.

Sweet Owen. Get those up if you can.


I'm loving the fact that they've allegedly subpoenaed Fulmer in the Wendell Smith case and scheduled his deposition two days before the UT/All-Barn game.

Awesome. Anything that gets under Fulmer's skin is aces in my book.

I have FSU season tix also. Thank the immortal soul of Burt Reynolds and Lee Corso we were a girls school for so long. I was reading recently how UGA just opened up new ticket sales for the 600 odd folks who decided not to renew....at the nice, easygoing price of a $10k annual donation. WHOA. I know that UF and the other SEC schools have similar massive annual donations needed to get tickets. History of programs and the fantastic conference have a lot to do with the large fees needed each year.

Hopefully FSU won't be like that for a long, long time so I can continue to get tickets. I really like my seats even though they aren't that great on paper. Lots of good people around me (same folks every year give or take one or two) who enjoy foootball as well as having a good time. No annoying 80 year olds complaining about us standing up or giving me the evil eye as I pour out my ziploc of Beam into my Diet Coke.

Besides, I always wondered how so many SEC fans can afford such expensive tickets with all those jeans shorts and cans of dip to buy. I kid, I kid, just getting ready for smack talk with the football season as we all know smack talk is an integral part of being a college football fan. A fan who can't talk smack supports a shit ass team. You should hear how poorly the Ga Tech fans/alums throw out insults at games. Its like being surrounded by an entire fanbase of 14 year olds on XBOX Live. Yeah, that bad.

Martianman, first beer is on me at next game we're both at. We tailgate over behind the right field of the baseball stadium. I have some friends with silver chief spots over there. Really good location.

Cool. Let me know when you're at a game. Like I said, I know for sure we're going to the opener. After that, it's a crap shoot. I know I won't be going to UF (I never go to UM or UF--I make my season ticket money back by selling them on eBay), and possibly not VT.

Hi, I'm Houston Nutt and I'll be your coach for the next 3-4 years trying my damnedest not to live up to your unreal expectations.

*dips a toe in the thread water to see if it's safe*



QFT. There's nothing worse than spying a great looking guy at a football game and then seeing him pull out a can of dip. I get put into a slow motion, "nnnnnnnnoooooooooo" every time.

I just read that my beloved Miami Hurricanes have 3 possible quarter backs (for a 2 QB system) for this season and none of them have ever taken a snap in a college game.


Oh, and my bf read this to me earlier today and it's interesting but a little too, um what's the polite word, "academic" for me in regards to football. I know the game pretty well (and I play shut down corner on my flag team! <preen>) but when people start drawing play diagrams for too long, I start getting sleepy.

It's called the A-11 offense and it uses two quarterbacks at the same time out of the shotgun.

http://highschool.rivals.com/content.asp?CID=825031

He made the crack that "Coach Shannon should use that and he can double his team's interception chances on each play". ...
Guess who just doubled *their* chances of dating their own hand for the rest of the week?

We don't need to smack talk the ACC. You guy's are barely above the Big 10 right now.

I can't believe there's not a youtube video up yet of Fulmer getting served his subpoena at SEC media days.

The coaches' poll came out today http://www.usatoday.com/sports/colle...l/usatpoll.htm

Although arbitrary, I don't care because I can't wait for the damn season to start. Any college football talk is attention worthy for another 30 days or so.

If Clemson is a top 10 team at the end of the year, I'll eat my [insert article of clothing here].

Hey, shut up!

*Pre Season Polls Are Meaningless*


Awesome, we're in the "others receiving votes" category! That's actually a victory at Kentucky. Woo Hoo!

I refuse to believe that is the actual coaches poll.. there's no 1 point vote for Duke from Steve Spurrier.

8 and 22 for me. Sounds like the past 5 seasons to me.