On a brisk Thursday night in which the nation fully expected, and rightfully so, some Trojans to really stick it to a bunch of Beavers, the Beavers pulled a shocker, came hard, and came out on top. Oregon State's improbable 27-20 victory makes it two in a row now over USC in Corvallis, and significantly shakes up the 2008 college football landscape. This was supposed an easy conquest for Southern Cal, but they came out flacid; their confidence, enthusiasm and morale appeared low from the start, and they could just never get it up.
The Trojans' vaunted offense, expected to come into Corvallis and mercilessly penetrate through and score, multiple times, on an inexperienced and previously slayed Beaver defense, was held in check for nearly the entire night. The Trojan defense, commonly considered to be the nation's best, and expected to at least provide a reservoir like protection and containment of any Beaver advances, was gashed, battered, broken and busted wide open by a resilient, grinding Beavers' offense. Trojan fans certainly learned that, despite how good the odds are, the only sure way to ensure you don't get exposed is to simply not step on the playing field at all, but we all know that's not a reasonable alternative.
The only question that remains now is whether the pollsters will actually be able to convince themselves to drop USC to #2. We all know they don't want to. Congratulations, Beavers. I would have paid a pretty penny to be up in that stadium of yours last night, dancing on your field, smelling your majestic Oregon aromas. Maybe some other time. 2010?
There's been a lot of hoopla about ESPN allegedly dropping the ball by not running the clip of the Dawgs' Knowshon Moreno hurdling a Chippewa defender (or really any highlights from the game) last Saturday through the ole Bristol Hype Machine. I think they may have finally got around to showing it on, like, Tuesday or something, but for it to not even make the package for Gameday Final is beyond me. The #2 team in the country, SEC East leaders putting a beatdown on the defending MAC champions isn't all that newsworthy, I agree. But a Heisman candidate doing some of the things Knowshon did here? This could have been Moreno's "Heisman Hype Clip", ala Charles Woodson's one handed pick or something, but instead we don't even get a little taste of the glory? To see what it tastes like? Come on, Bristol.
Anyways, I won't drop "conspiracy" outside of quotation marks (yet), but I will say that the likelihood of this happening to Beanie Wells or Tebow, or anyone on the USC roster, is extremely low. ESPN has their favorites, and they have their reasons (arguably good reasons). I understand ESPN is a business first and foremost, I just think they should run that as a disclaimer from time to time in their Bottom Line ticker or something...
Congratulations, Valdosta. Winning this ESPN contest is quite an honor, I suppose. For those of you that don't know, around 50% of my family is from Valdosta, and still down there. I've spent a lot of time 'round dem parts, and still make it down around two times a year. Despite that, and my knowledge of the area's remarkable sports history, I was still rather surprised when I heard they'd beat out places like Boston, Chicago, New York, Los Angeles, Chapel Hill, Green Bay, and so on to win this whole TitleTown thing. I figure that means that the detached, purely objective observer, as you likely are, is extremely surprised. Well, assuming that's the case, I felt it would be a pretty good time to drop a little Valdosta/Lowndes County knowledge on ya...
EA Sports' NCAA Football 2009 rankings. I guess I should clarify this a bit. You see, there are a lot of things that I think need to be changed about college football, and one of the first things I'd do as dictator is abolish all preseason polls; or at least their obvious, arguably inappropriate influence on the only rankings that really matter in the end: The final BCS standings.
Ask yourself if LSU could still make the 2007 BCS Championship Game, after two losses over their last 6 regular season games, if they'd started the season ranked 8th or 13th, for example, as opposed to 2nd. The big two preseason polls, as well as all the other media polls out there, pollute the college football landscape by gifting certain anointed teams an advantage based on what is essentially, somewhat arbitrary, conjecture. I mean, let's face it, these things come out well before any team has even sniffed a competitive playing field. What legitimate basis do the voters have to rank any team at that point?
Make the jump for more on this topic and NCAA Football 2009's Top 25 courtesy ofOperation Sports, who apparently received a beta copy of the game (lucky).
Filthy as sin, and 100% Dawg. If this reel is a bit dirty in general, and I posit that it is, then things regress to absolute squalor around the 1:45 mark. Nasty! I just hope that poor kid can walk again one day. More after the jump...
In an expected and loathesome decision today, John Swofford announced that the BCS was in an "unprecedented state of health" and will not adjust its format to the excruciatingly logical "+1" scenario that college football fans from coast to coast have been pining for since the birth of the BCS.
WRIGHTSVILLE, Georgia-- Many people think they know the legendary Herschel Walker, and that's because they've probably met him in person and hung out with him. He's a famous running back who won the 1982 Heisman Trophy.
On freshman Kyle Parker, who is having a really good season with the baseball team: “I’ve watched him practice and I’ve watched him play (baseball). He’s really good looking. If I was a girl, I’d be very interested in him. He wears those tight pants. When you wear loose stuff, you can’t tell the definition of a guy’s body. In baseball, everything’s tight and you can tell he’s very well put together.”
Posted by cieron on 09/26 at 11:23 AM
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