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Tuesday, August 24, 2004
Autumn is in the Air
I’ve been dying these past eight months without college football. Improbably, my love for the sport keeps increasing, which is weird since I graduated from Stanford more than two years ago. I think college football has now passed college basketball (and is neck-and-neck with pro football) on my list of favorite sports. Thank goodness USC and Virginia Tech kick the season off this Saturday. Here’s my second annual season preview:
* Tyrone Willingham can make as many flowery NBC commercials as he wants; he’s still not gonna turn things around at Notre Dame this season. Simply put, the Irish will never be able to get a BCS berth until they lighten up their schedule. USC, Michigan, Tennessee, and Pitt? There’s too much recruiting parity these days and the Notre Dame program doesn’t appeal to the kids they way it used to.
* I know everyone keeps telling us that the annual Oklahoma-Texas showdown will be the game of the year. But isn’t it about time we hold off until the rivalry actually lives up to the hype? It’s hard to appreciate how important this game is when the Sooners just take Texas behind the woodshed every year. Yeah I’ll watch on October 9, but I’m not gonna get my hopes up that this might be the year that the Longhorns actually show up to the Red River Shootout.
* Speaking of Texas, the one thing they do have going for them is that they’re led by the most exciting player in the nation, Vince Young. I watched him play in a few games last year and I thought: “This guy is Michael Vick in Michael Jordan’s body.” And isn’t it nice that Texas can finally go into a season without a fat question mark at quarterback?
* The best conference race in the nation will certainly be in the SEC, where LSU, Georgia, Florida and Auburn are all talented enough to win any other conference in the nation.
* Conversely, the most pathetic conference race in the nation will be the Big East. So who ya got- West Virginia? Don’t forget about Boston College! How ‘bout them UConn Huskies?! What a pathetic offering. This conference belongs in I-AA.
* Has there ever been a better player to receive a more lukewarm welcome to his senior year than Jason White? The guy put up an astronomical regular season, but after two injury-marred games, the media wants to throw him under the bus. “Oh, you mean you want to come back for another year Jason? Are you sure? Really? Because, ya know, if you wanted to leave Oklahoma that would be totally cool too…”
* My must-see games of the year (okay, besides the Red River Shootout): LSU at Georgia (Oct. 2), LSU at Florida (Oct. 9), Oklahoma at Kansas St. (Oct. 16), Michigan at Ohio St. (Nov. 20) and Florida at Florida St. (Nov. 20).
* I think the following are overrated: the Miami Hurricanes, Missouri’s Brad Smith, LSU’s offense, Bobby Bowden, K-State’s Darren Sproles, the Big 12 in general, the USA Today/ESPN Coaches poll, and Cal (okay, bias).
* I think the following are underrated: USC’s running backs, the Florida Gators, Vince Young, Fresno State, Brent Musberger, Washington State as a program, conference championships in general, SI.com’s Stewart Mandel, Michigan’s offense.
Mr. Predicto
Pac-10: USC
Big 12: Oklahoma
Big Ten: Michigan
SEC: Florida
ACC: Florida State
Big East: West Virginia
BCS At Large: Georgia
BCS At Large: Miami
Heisman Trophy: Chris Leak, QB, Florida
National Title Game: USC over Florida. I grew up hating the Trojans, but I can’t help but sit in awe of the juggernaut that Pete Carroll has constructed over the past three years. They don’t even need Mike Williams, since they’ve been stockpiling an arsenal of top recruits for the past several years. Williams (whom Carroll somehow recruited despite the fact that Williams is from Florida) will be playing with pro-caliber athletes after all this year- at USC. Their three running backs (none of whom are seniors) zig-zag up the field like mosquitos. Matt Leinart was one of the best quarterbacks in the country last year- just think what he can do now that he actually has a year of experience under his belt. And that defense… did you see how they mauled Michigan on New Year’s Day?
Florida on the other hand, will be the surprise team of the nation. Everyone expects LSU and Georgia to meet in for the SEC title, but the plucky Chris Leak will follow up his phenomenal freshman year and start dominating like a young Peyton Manning. Leak will steal the Heisman vote by a hair over Leinart, setting up a showdown between the two with the national title on the line. But alas, these Trojans are just too experiened, too deep and too destined to be beaten.
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Wednesday, August 18, 2004
The Olympics Have Taken Over My Life
Here are some random thoughts five days into the Olympics:
* I will never, ever get tired of John Williams' Olympic Theme song. I like it so much I downloaded it and listen to it at work. Wouldn't it be great if that score started blaring every time you entered a room?
* The emptiness of these stadiums is absolutely embarrassing. I mean, I know that potential visitors are scared off by terrorism and that some of these sports are rather obscure (synchronized diving?). But given that Athens has over 3 million people and the city has been begging for the Olympics for the past two decades, you would think there'd be a better turnout. Even for a universally popular sport like soccer, there were 8 empty seats for every fan at each game that I've caught. It's awfully hard to get psyched about watching something on TV when nobody makes an effort to attend in person.
* Can we all agree that it was ludicrous to expect Mike Phelps to win eight golds? Thank you, we may now be sane again and appreciate his actual accomplishments after they happen.
* USA Basketball is absolutely painful to watch. Shawn Marion, Richard Jefferson and Carlos Boozer are totally useless out there. There's no need to have eight guys on the roster who's entire repertoire consists of moves like: hesitate, drive into the lane, realize that there are four defenders surrounding you, then flail up a three-foot brick. The Sports Guy said it best- it's time to blow up the Dream team concept and build a team that works cohesively.
* These past few days have made me realize how much I missed Bob Costas. Why oh why is he stuck in the programming wasteland that is NBC Sports? I remember the early '90s glory days when Costas would host NFL Live (with co-host O.J. Simpson) then seamlessly slide into the baseball broadcast booth next to Joe Morgan every fall. We all took Bob Costas for granted. I'm just glad I have HBO so that I can catch him on Inside the NFL this fall.
* Everyone complains about the fact that the primetime broadcasts are tape-delayed while NBC presents them as if they were live. I have no problem with it, since there's no working around the fact that Athens is ten time zones ahead of us. Even if I know the results, I would rather see the complete footage of the event. It's the same reason we watch SportsCenter: you know the result but you want to see what happened with your own eyes.
* This is the second Olympics in a row that gymnastics just hasn't done it for me. I was enthralled during Barcelona and Atlanta, but for whatever reason I just don't have the attention span for it. I can't keep track of which gymnasts are on which apparatus, who got what score and which country is leading. I think I'm getting old.
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