STUFF I FORGOT YESTERDAY, PRYOR LOSES APPEAL & TEBOW BILLBOARDS SPRING UP IN DENVER
After I watched two college games Thursday evening, I came into the office to read the Jeff Pearlman excerpt in Sports Illustrated. I got so hot after I finished, I forgot all about the Thursday night games, so I'm going to touch on them briefly. They were very interesting.
Someone was gonna pay, it just happened to be the Bulls.
The Pitt Panthers had enough, they'd blown a 17-point 4th quarter lead at Iowa. Choked against Notre Dame, someone was gonna pay, it just happened to be #16 South Florida. And pay they did, Skip Holtz's team was down by just 3 at halftime, but the Panthers came out smokin' & never looked back scoring 24 unanswered points to win 44-17. Pitt running back Ray Graham sliced thru the S. Florida defense for 226-yards & 2 touchdowns. Seemed like every 2nd half carry was 12-15 yards. When they blew the game in Iowa, Graham barely touched the ball in the 2nd half, maybe coach Todd Graham decided to place the game in the hands of his best player. What a novel idea.
Pitt's Ray Graham
Look Ma, no defense!
Thursday night's track meet in El Paso between Houston & UTEP was ridiculous, 1,248 total yards of offense, 57 first downs & 701-yards for the Cougars. Houston won 49-42 in this Conference USA "defenseless exhibition." Houston QB Case Keenum completed 30 of 46 for 471-yards & 2 scores. The Miners had closed the deficit to 3-points at the end of three quarters, but the Cougars kicked a field goal & then pinned way back on their 16-yardline, running back Charles Sims took a Keenum screen pass 84-yards for a touchdown that proved to be the final margin of victory.
Tonight the BYU Cougars used up almost all the clock before scoring the winning touchdown with 00:11 left in the game on a deflected 13-yard pass from BYU backup Riley Nelson to Marcus Mathews. The Cougars beat Utah State 27-24.
Oakland rookie QB Terrelle Pryor hoping to avoid the full 5-game suspension handed down by NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell appealed that suspension. On Friday, the league upheld the suspension. The Commish stated in his decision the league would not allow college players to deliberately get kicked out of school so they can enter the supplemental draft. After Ohio State suspended Pryor for the first 5-games to begin this season, he got into more trouble & the school declared his Buckeye career over. That's not going to work with the NFL. I think if this issue was taken into a civilian court, the plaintiff could probably win. But as long as the NFL holds such a huge hammer over it's workforce, what kids do in college can haunt them as they begin playing for pay.
Two Green Bay starters, RB Ryan Grant & ROT Bryan Bulaga will miss Sunday's game with Denver. Philadelphia linebacker Casey Mathews has been benched after being pushed around in all three games this season. The undersized LB can't get off blocks down after down.
Eureka fans of Florida pro football will have a rare treat with all three teams televised locally. The Jaguars sold enough tickets to lift the blackout, Miami plays in San Diego & even the Bucs sold enough tickets to lift a Monday Night blackout. Tampa Bay had 10-consecutive blackouts on local TV. The Jags face New Orleans in Blaine Gabbert's home debut. I bet there were thousands of Saints' fans who bought tickets to travel the 550-miles to Jacksonville. Regardless, all three NFL teams on TV in one two-gay period hasn't happened too often lately.
Jacksonville's EverBank Field is soldout
Jeff Pearlman was on The Dan Patrick Show Friday morning, he made me sick. Pearlman whined about how brutal the response to his Walter Payton biography was. "It's been pretty fierce, I've never had a backlash like this in my life. It hasn't been the most fun day in my life" Pearlman complained & then he complained some more. I didn't think I could be more annoyed by this guy, but after listening to him bellyaching on Patrick's show, he's pushed me to a whole new level of annoyance.
It appears some fans of the Denver Broncos have lost their ever-lovin' minds. On Friday, the second pro-Tebow billboard went online. The outcry for elevating Tebow, currently the 3rd string QB, to the starting lineup is all over Denver talk radio, Bronco blogs & now a second group has spent enough cash to put their wishes onto a billboard. He's not ready to start, he might never be ready. But that hasn't dampened the enthusiasm for the former Florida Gator. The Broncos are bad enough that in the season's second half, I think Tebow & his major competition, 2nd QB Brady Quinn, will get opportunities to play. If Kyle Orton struggles, the Broncos will most likely choose not to sign him to a new contract. I also think either Tebow or Quinn won't be with Denver next year either. But I doubt very seriously coach John Fox will be swayed by a billboard.
Good slate of college games today, here's a few of the televised contests & my thoughts on how they'll go.
Texas A&M vs. Arkansas @ Dallas Hogs missing some valuable talent, maybe too much. Aggies threw away a big lead last week, don't see it again in this game.
Nevada at Boise State revenge factor as Boise was knocked out of the BCS last year by Nevada. This could really get ugly.
Auburn at South Carolina Spurriers' Gamecocks haven't put it all together yet, but they'll beat Auburn.
Michigan State at Ohio State Could be a long afternoon for the homestanding Buckeyes
Baylor at Kansas State This should be a very interesting matchup, two undefeated teams that are somewhat surprising at this point. I'm looking forward to my man RG3.
Alabama at Florida CBS primetime matchup is speed & power(Bama) vs. ultra speed.
Nebraska at Wisconsin ABC primetime game at Madison will mark the Cornhuskers BIG TEN debut. Camp Randall is a very tough place to begin.
Ole Miss at Fresno State The hot seat for Rebels' Houston Nutt will be on scorch if he loses to Pat Hill's Bulldogs.
Someone was gonna pay, it just happened to be the Bulls.
The Pitt Panthers had enough, they'd blown a 17-point 4th quarter lead at Iowa. Choked against Notre Dame, someone was gonna pay, it just happened to be #16 South Florida. And pay they did, Skip Holtz's team was down by just 3 at halftime, but the Panthers came out smokin' & never looked back scoring 24 unanswered points to win 44-17. Pitt running back Ray Graham sliced thru the S. Florida defense for 226-yards & 2 touchdowns. Seemed like every 2nd half carry was 12-15 yards. When they blew the game in Iowa, Graham barely touched the ball in the 2nd half, maybe coach Todd Graham decided to place the game in the hands of his best player. What a novel idea.
Pitt's Ray Graham
Look Ma, no defense!
Thursday night's track meet in El Paso between Houston & UTEP was ridiculous, 1,248 total yards of offense, 57 first downs & 701-yards for the Cougars. Houston won 49-42 in this Conference USA "defenseless exhibition." Houston QB Case Keenum completed 30 of 46 for 471-yards & 2 scores. The Miners had closed the deficit to 3-points at the end of three quarters, but the Cougars kicked a field goal & then pinned way back on their 16-yardline, running back Charles Sims took a Keenum screen pass 84-yards for a touchdown that proved to be the final margin of victory.
Tonight the BYU Cougars used up almost all the clock before scoring the winning touchdown with 00:11 left in the game on a deflected 13-yard pass from BYU backup Riley Nelson to Marcus Mathews. The Cougars beat Utah State 27-24.
Oakland rookie QB Terrelle Pryor hoping to avoid the full 5-game suspension handed down by NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell appealed that suspension. On Friday, the league upheld the suspension. The Commish stated in his decision the league would not allow college players to deliberately get kicked out of school so they can enter the supplemental draft. After Ohio State suspended Pryor for the first 5-games to begin this season, he got into more trouble & the school declared his Buckeye career over. That's not going to work with the NFL. I think if this issue was taken into a civilian court, the plaintiff could probably win. But as long as the NFL holds such a huge hammer over it's workforce, what kids do in college can haunt them as they begin playing for pay.
Two Green Bay starters, RB Ryan Grant & ROT Bryan Bulaga will miss Sunday's game with Denver. Philadelphia linebacker Casey Mathews has been benched after being pushed around in all three games this season. The undersized LB can't get off blocks down after down.
Eureka fans of Florida pro football will have a rare treat with all three teams televised locally. The Jaguars sold enough tickets to lift the blackout, Miami plays in San Diego & even the Bucs sold enough tickets to lift a Monday Night blackout. Tampa Bay had 10-consecutive blackouts on local TV. The Jags face New Orleans in Blaine Gabbert's home debut. I bet there were thousands of Saints' fans who bought tickets to travel the 550-miles to Jacksonville. Regardless, all three NFL teams on TV in one two-gay period hasn't happened too often lately.
Jacksonville's EverBank Field is soldout
Jeff Pearlman was on The Dan Patrick Show Friday morning, he made me sick. Pearlman whined about how brutal the response to his Walter Payton biography was. "It's been pretty fierce, I've never had a backlash like this in my life. It hasn't been the most fun day in my life" Pearlman complained & then he complained some more. I didn't think I could be more annoyed by this guy, but after listening to him bellyaching on Patrick's show, he's pushed me to a whole new level of annoyance.
It appears some fans of the Denver Broncos have lost their ever-lovin' minds. On Friday, the second pro-Tebow billboard went online. The outcry for elevating Tebow, currently the 3rd string QB, to the starting lineup is all over Denver talk radio, Bronco blogs & now a second group has spent enough cash to put their wishes onto a billboard. He's not ready to start, he might never be ready. But that hasn't dampened the enthusiasm for the former Florida Gator. The Broncos are bad enough that in the season's second half, I think Tebow & his major competition, 2nd QB Brady Quinn, will get opportunities to play. If Kyle Orton struggles, the Broncos will most likely choose not to sign him to a new contract. I also think either Tebow or Quinn won't be with Denver next year either. But I doubt very seriously coach John Fox will be swayed by a billboard.
Good slate of college games today, here's a few of the televised contests & my thoughts on how they'll go.
Texas A&M vs. Arkansas @ Dallas Hogs missing some valuable talent, maybe too much. Aggies threw away a big lead last week, don't see it again in this game.
Nevada at Boise State revenge factor as Boise was knocked out of the BCS last year by Nevada. This could really get ugly.
Auburn at South Carolina Spurriers' Gamecocks haven't put it all together yet, but they'll beat Auburn.
Michigan State at Ohio State Could be a long afternoon for the homestanding Buckeyes
Baylor at Kansas State This should be a very interesting matchup, two undefeated teams that are somewhat surprising at this point. I'm looking forward to my man RG3.
Alabama at Florida CBS primetime matchup is speed & power(Bama) vs. ultra speed.
Nebraska at Wisconsin ABC primetime game at Madison will mark the Cornhuskers BIG TEN debut. Camp Randall is a very tough place to begin.
Ole Miss at Fresno State The hot seat for Rebels' Houston Nutt will be on scorch if he loses to Pat Hill's Bulldogs.
Comments