Thanksgiving weekend games

-If I had a Heisman vote, it would go to Colt McCoy after his performance against A&M. Although some of that sentiment is based on his whole career. I can see the arguments for Gerhardt from Stanford, Spiller from Clemson, and of course, Tebow. I wasn't that impressed by Ingram.
-Speaking of Tebow, I'll be more than happy to see him go. He's clearly a great player and as an impartial observer in most Florida games, he is exciting to watch. But the cult of personality that has grown around him is quite sickening, frankly, especially where religion is concerned. I've always believed that religion and sports shouldn't be mixed. God didn't help either team win, and players who believe that are either fools, or think we are foolish. The fact that Tebow goes on missions, or puts a bible quote on his eye black doesn't make him a better football player, or even a better person, it just makes him a more devout christian. Would he be any less of a football player if he knelt down, pointing towards Mecca and prayed to Allah four times a day? i wish him all the luck in the NFL (or CFL), but I'll be happy if I can watch a Florida game with out some announcer going on about St. Tebow the saviour of Gainsville.
-Nice bounce back win for LSU. Good to see that Miles will keep his job for another year Their loss at Mississippi was quite embarrassing, and it's good that it won't really impact their season too much. Golden had a pretty good breakdown of all the game management mistakes in that game. I just don't understand how coaches (and it's not just Miles) who make millions of dollars can't completely master something that a majority of the fans can figure out. Shouldn't you assign some graduate assistant to watch time and tell the head coach when it's time to call a time out?
-Sad to see Chuckles out at ND. He was always good for a laugh, and there was a certain comfort in knowing that no matter how well he recruited the likely hood of them being a really good team was slim.
-I don't have much sympathy for Bobby Bowden. I know people think he should have been allowed to pick his own exit, instead of being forced out. But Bowden created a culture at FSU that the only thing that mattered was winning football games. Nothing else, academic scandal, criminal charges, or loyalty to the university matters as much as winning. The fact that mercenary attitude came back to bit Dagummit in the ass shouldn't surprise anyone.
-If the reports of 10-15 MSU players being involved in the post football bust beat down of frat boys turn out to be true, Dantonio should turn down the bowl bid. When nearly 20% of your team decides to don ski masks and start a brawl moments after gathering with coaches, families and supporters of the team to celebrate the team's accomplishments, that's a sign of an overall problem with the program. Because if 15 team members went to the brawl, you know that there were many more that knew about it and didn't do enough to stop it. The fact that it happened right after the banquet show that these players have little respect for the coaches. The whole incident is a giant "fuck you" to Dantonio and his coaching staff. -- "Thanks for the great season coach, now we are going to go do something that will embarrass you and the program and goes against everything you've been trying to teach us this past year" Of course, one could argue that Dantonio's reinstating Geln Winston to the team fresh out of jail because he was worried about his depth at RB sent the message that winning on the field was the only thing that mattered. If Dantonio wants to change that message, he should cancel the bowl trip. His alma mater and Clemson did that a number of years ago after a particularly ugly post-game brawl.

Depth Charges

More than anything else, games like yesterday's game against Eastern are about depth - developing depth by giving backups and second and third stringers a chance to play, and using depth to avoid the inevitable letdown that comes when you play a team you're expected to beat handily.

It's clear that we have developed the depth we need to be a championship team in some areas, but are still sorely lacking in others. We have as much talent at the offensive skill positions (QB, RB, WR, TE) as anyone in the league. The depth certainly helped yesterday. Tate Forcier had his worst game of the year. He missed a number of passes. Not Threet or Sheridan missed, but turn a 20 yard gain into a 5 yard gain type misses. A number of times he passed up a sure couple of yards trying to make a big play. It seemed pretty clear that he had read some of his press clippings this week and wanted to show that he was the newest superstar. As a result, our passing game was not nearly as efficient yesterday as it was the previous two weeks. In it's place was a devastating rushing attack. From the first snap, it was clear that Carlos Brown was going to have a great game. Eastern had no answer for his speed. Michael Shaw looked almost as good.

On the other hand, it's equally clear that we are nowhere near a championship level defense, and we are amazing thin there. With the Big Ten suspending Jonas Mouton just a day before the game, we were left starting a walk-on, Kevin Leach at linebacker. What's worse, he appeared to be the better of our two inside linebackers. Obi Ezah just seems lost out there at times -- tentative, slow, and consistently out of position. EMU basically had success with two plays, a sort of counter that sucked the linebackers into the line, before the RB bounced the play around the end, and a play action waggled that got the linebacker open crossing in front of the moving QB. Both plays really took advantage of the decision making of our linebackers. Given that poor play, I was disappointed to not see more of the backups once we got up big late in the second half. If backups like Kenny Demens, Brandon Smith, and JB Fitzgerald can't get playing time against Eastern, the chance of them helping later in the year is slim to none.

Bullets:
-Eastern may have provided the game plan to beat us this year -- run, run, run, play action to the TE. Keep our D on the field.
-Denard clearly has a long way to go at QB. He made a couple of bad reads that led to our two turnovers. But he has good arm, decent mechanics, and of course could turn off the light and be in bed before it gets dark. The bar is not very high for his passing competency. He only needs to be adequate at passing to make him a quarterback capable of moving the ball against good defenses.
-I was hoping to see more of the OL backups - Omaneh, Barnum, Khoury, Mealer.
-I hope Andy Schmitt is ok. He's a good QB, and Eastern really has no chance of having any sort of season without him. I was watching him with the binoculars when he went down, it looked bad. He planted and his knee buckled.
-There were a couple of spreads this week that looked like fool's gold. Unfortunately this fool only recognized one of the three before the games were played. What's the old saying, "It's not the Xs and Os, it's the Jimmies and the Joes." In college football, most times, talent wins. That's why OSU wins 10 or 11 games every year with the world's dullest offense. There were three games where the talent gap between the two teams seemed to be at odds with the spread:
1) BYU was favored by a touchdown over Florida State. While everyone focused on BYU's win over Oklahoma and how they executed, the truth is, even as much as the 'Noles have slipped in recent years, they still have a lot more talent than BYU
2) Oklahoma was only favored over Tulsa by 18. Everyone wondered if OU could recover from the loss of Sam Bradford. But remember that a program as good as OU always has talent waiting in the wings. Given a couple of weeks, It should have been obvious that Landry Jones (the backup QB) would be just fine.
3) Florida was favored by 30 over Tennessee. With all the hype about Kiffin's comments and conjecture about how much Florida would run up the score, we lost sight of the fact that Tennessee's problem in recent years hasn't been their defense, and that they still have a fair amount of talent, with a very good defensive coordinator, Monte Kiffin.
-Watching the Texas - Tex Tech game, it appeared to me that the new enclosed end of the stadium, which was only partially completed when we went there, makes a big difference in the noise level of the stadium. Perhaps I should attend another game there.
-I think that the end might be near for the USC "dynasty" They really looked quite mediocre against the Huskies and I wouldn't be surprised to see them lose to Cal, UCLA, or even, gasp, Notre Dame. I think Carroll should really think about opening up the offense a little, there appears to be little imagination in what they do.
-Is it just me, or did it seem like Tennessee wasn't really trying to win the game against Florida, so much as just keep the score down.
-I didn't really see much of the MSU/ND game, but it looked very similar to our game against ND a week earlier, except that the absence of Michael Floyd hurt the Irish in the stretch run. I was kinda surprised how much the announcers were commenting on every penalty the Irish got. I think that they've bought into what Weis was trying to convey last week - they only lost to us because of the officials.
-The Arkansas / Georgia game was absolutely bonkers. Ryan Mallet is going to make opposing defensive coaches in the SEC sweat for three years. Of course the Razorbacks don't have enough other talent to win a title, but their games will be fun to watch.
-Ditto for the Fresno / Boise game on Friday night. Boise may have a great rushing attack and some good skill players, but they will get carved up when they play a BCS conference team on New Year's if they don't improve their rush defense. A lot. And why did Fresno keep kicking the ball deep, after giving up two kickoff returns for TDs (one that counted) and two other 60 plus yard returns? Pat Hill is vastly overrated as a coach. Did you realized that he has never won a conference title?