|
|
Post by Richie3Jack on Sept 2, 2010 8:40:34 GMT -5
All NCAA 2010 thoughts and post shall go here as the season will start tonite.
I'm not as big of a fan of NCAA as I am the NFL, but I still have some rooting interests. I grew up a Syracuse fan being from Syracuse and had season tickets with my dad. Last year they won 4 games, including beating 2 bowl teams (Northwestern and Rutgers) and losing 3 games they should've won (USF, Louisville and Minnesota). They play a pretty easy schedule again. But, I really like Doug Marrone as a coach. I think this is one of the few college coaches that can really flat out coach the game...or at least it looked like it last season.
Back in the day college coaches like Bear Bryant, Tom Osborne and others were genuinely good coaches who knew the ins and outs of every position. Now these days it's all about recruiting. I remember reading a piece by Bill Walsh when he went back to Stanford saying that when they did college football coach seminars before he went to the Niners they would talk about drills, techniques, philosophies, etc....the real nuts and bolts of coaching football and then when he came back it was all about recruiting. But I think Marrone is a real 'nuts and bolts' coach who can recruit if he can get them to a bowl.
I also like the USC Gamecocks. I went to school at Coastal Carolina, about 2 hours away and Gamecocks fans are about as dedicated of a bunch as you'll ever see. When I went there, one year they were winless and still sold out every game. I haven't really paid attention to them, but apparently Steven Garcia at QB is a possible gem, so we'll see.
I live 2 miles from the UCF stadium so I might catch some games there, although Orlando is Florida Gator land.
3JACK
|
|
|
|
Post by gmbtempe on Sept 2, 2010 12:59:28 GMT -5
Its interesting most people I know from the NY area just are not big college football fans......same thing out west where while popular just does not have as much interest. If you are from the midwest or southeast though its just huge.
I am pretty good at betting these games, especially early where I know more about the off seasons then the general bettor.
|
|
|
|
Post by Richie3Jack on Sept 2, 2010 14:04:28 GMT -5
People from the northeast usually have big cities nearby. The neat thing about college football is that it allows small cities and towns to have a huge program for so many fans to follow. Atlanta currently is a city of about 4.5 million people. But I'm guessing when the Falcons were formed, the population there was about 500,000 or so. And without Atlanta, the rest of the state of Georgia is really very rural. So back then it was probably hard for a professional franchise to connect and appeal with the typical Georgia resident, whereas the University of Georgia is a representation of that state.
In New York, there are only about a handful of D-1 football programs IIRC.....Syracuse, Buffalo (which just built its program) and Army. Not sure if Hofstra is a program or not. Plus, New York is much more of a basketball state. I can name about 10 players from my neck of the woods that played D-1 football. Yet, there are countless guys that played D-1 basketball and plenty of guys who should've played D-1 basketball had they not been such jerkoffs. I remember when I went to CCU I was amazed that they were a D-1 team because I could probably go to any playground in my neighborhood and find 5 guys that were better than CCU's starters at the time. And that's in the Syracuse area. In NYC the basketball on the playgrounds there is ridiculous and 6'10"+ guys seem to grow on trees down there. Plus, lots of history there with the Giants, Jets and Bills and that's only in the state of NY.
Pretty much in NY they look basketball, baseball, pro football, lacrosse, amateur wrestling and hockey.
3JACK
|
|
|
|
Post by gmbtempe on Sept 2, 2010 14:06:35 GMT -5
People from the northeast usually have big cities nearby. The neat thing about college football is that it allows small cities and towns to have a huge program for so many fans to follow. Atlanta currently is a city of about 4.5 million people. But I'm guessing when the Falcons were formed, the population there was about 500,000 or so. And without Atlanta, the rest of the state of Georgia is really very rural. So back then it was probably hard for a professional franchise to connect and appeal with the typical Georgia resident, whereas the University of Georgia is a representation of that state. In New York, there are only about a handful of D-1 football programs IIRC.....Syracuse, Buffalo (which just built its program) and Army. Not sure if Hofstra is a program or not. Plus, New York is much more of a basketball state. I can name about 10 players from my neck of the woods that played D-1 football. Yet, there are countless guys that played D-1 basketball and plenty of guys who should've played D-1 basketball had they not been such jerkoffs. I remember when I went to CCU I was amazed that they were a D-1 team because I could probably go to any playground in my neighborhood and find 5 guys that were better than CCU's starters at the time. And that's in the Syracuse area. In NYC the basketball on the playgrounds there is ridiculous and 6'10"+ guys seem to grow on trees down there. Plus, lots of history there with the Giants, Jets and Bills and that's only in the state of NY. Pretty much in NY they look basketball, baseball, pro football, lacrosse, amateur wrestling and hockey. 3JACK Dont forget Horse Racing.........ahhhhhhh Saratoga ;D |
|
|
|
Post by Richie3Jack on Sept 2, 2010 14:15:01 GMT -5
yes, generally NY'ers love sports. I think NY has the most courses in the top 100 of any state. bowling is big there as well as most of the pro bowlers tend to come from upstate. I had friends and family that fished and hunted more than anybody I've met anywhere else. There's also the Hot Dog eating competition in Coney Island every July 4th  3JACK |
|
|
|
Post by gmbtempe on Sept 3, 2010 12:31:48 GMT -5
Just some thoughts on yesterdays games........
Utah at home is going to beat just about everyone, I thought Pitt showed a lot for a first start qb on the road. Both are good teams but Pitt is better despite the loss.
USC has major issues on D but Barkley looks as good as any true soph I can remember. Sam Bradford was awesome but he was a redshirt.
Was a little surprised that OSU had trouble running against Marshall. Stats were a bit deceiving.
Good win for Minnesota on the road at MTSU, how do you schedule that game?
|
|
|
|
Post by Richie3Jack on Sept 3, 2010 12:51:04 GMT -5
The Gamecocks looked impressive, but it's always tough to tell against So. Miss because they are usually deceptively good or really piss poor. The team started to look more like Spurrier's old Florida teams with a lot of 4 WR sets, being aggressive, throwing some trick plays in there, and having a good tailback. I don't like Spurrier, but I give him credit in that his offense does work in the college game when he has the athletes and he was usually good at finding a strong D-Coordinator and giving him carte blanche over the defense. Lattimore (true freshman tailback) can really play and I think QB Garcia may be one of Spurrier's most talented QB's ever.
3JACK
|
|
|
|
Post by gmbtempe on Sept 3, 2010 13:09:45 GMT -5
At S.C. I guess the new o line coach is from app state who was a zone blocking juggernaut....Lattimore was the top player in the country coming out of high school last year, he is the real deal.
South Ca if you go by recruiting rankings is the biggest underachiever in football, great talent is SC.
|
|
|
|
Post by Richie3Jack on Sept 3, 2010 13:30:49 GMT -5
You have to remember that Clemson is in the same state and traditionally Clemson is the powerhouse football team. The talent is pretty decent in SC, but Georgia, Tennessee and Florida are far better. Columbia, SC is only 30 minutes or so from the NC border and NC has a lot of great talent as well. They are truly the great fans of football. They'll sell out every game if they go 1-10 every year for 5 years in a row. Not many teams can legitimately say that in my opinion.
3JACK
|
|
|
|
Post by gmbtempe on Sept 3, 2010 15:13:18 GMT -5
You have to remember that Clemson is in the same state and traditionally Clemson is the powerhouse football team. The talent is pretty decent in SC, but Georgia, Tennessee and Florida are far better. Columbia, SC is only 30 minutes or so from the NC border and NC has a lot of great talent as well. They are truly the great fans of football. They'll sell out every game if they go 1-10 every year for 5 years in a row. Not many teams can legitimately say that in my opinion. 3JACK On average SC has more talent then 80% of the states, USC has higher rated kids then most of the teams they play yet loses way more games than they should. Interestingly Clemson is quite high on the list of under performing programs. In terms of high school talent its Florida California Texas Ohio Georgia Penns. South Carolina falls into the next tier with Ala, Louisiana, Michigan, North Carolina. |
|
|
|
Post by Richie3Jack on Sept 3, 2010 15:47:49 GMT -5
On average SC has more talent then 80% of the states, USC has higher rated kids then most of the teams they play yet loses way more games than they should. Interestingly Clemson is quite high on the list of under performing programs. In terms of high school talent its Florida California Texas Ohio Georgia Penns. South Carolina falls into the next tier with Ala, Louisiana, Michigan, North Carolina. There's a ton of big time colleges in a 4 hour radius from Atlanta. You've got the following: UGA Ga. Tech Auburn Alabama Tennessee Clemson FSU Vanderbilt As far as campuses go, I've never been on the Vandy campus, but the other campuses and towns are far better for a college kid. Clemson is really out in the middle of nowhere, but it otherwise fine and is a college town. Columbia is not pretty and is the state capital. It's a college town of sorts, but not nearly as big of a college town as the other schools. I disagree with you on Lousiana. I think at this point in time it's a top 5 state for HS football prospects. 3JACK |
|
|
|
Post by gmbtempe on Sept 3, 2010 16:29:28 GMT -5
My betting pick of the week sad to say is Uconn +3 against Michigan.....they got the wrong team favored here and I would be betting the money line and take the over as well.
Other game I thought was interesting was Illinois -12.5 to Missouri. There is still some talent left on that team, especially defensive and in a rivalry game thats a lot of points.
|
|
|
|
Post by Richie3Jack on Sept 4, 2010 17:52:09 GMT -5
Michigan looked quite good here against UConn. Although UConn tends to get off to some slow starts. Watching Notre Dame for a bit and they looked much better than Purdue, but had troubles with coughing up the football. Ought to be a great game next week. Trying to watch Syracuse vs. Akron on Gamecast right now. SU is up 10-0 in the 2nd, but there's a big wind out there that's slowing down offenses when they are going against it.
3JACK
|
|
|
|
Post by gmbtempe on Sept 4, 2010 18:40:38 GMT -5
Wow was I wrong about Michigan, thank god!....of course UConns offense could not capitalize on the youthful D of Michigan which I expect ND to do.
Denard was a monster, you cant stop that skill. He can bust off 80 at any time, the fact he did not was the only surprise.
1-1 in the betting.
|
|
|
|
Post by Richie3Jack on Sept 4, 2010 19:04:25 GMT -5
Ugh, I hate most sports writing, especially college football oriented sports writers. The Cuse didn't get off to a fast start running the ball, so the writers want to abandon the run for the pass, in windy conditions.
3JACK
|
|
