December 4, 2006

Championship Weekend Recap

From the Editor: With sports guru and FanIQ blog editor, Critical Fanatic on vacation in Paris, I was called in to assist. That might be why it has been a little light around here lately. This article originally appeared as three pieces on the FanIQ blog.

One piece of the BCS picture came into focus. One piece got a little more interesting.

Wake Forest 9 Georgia Tech 6 The guy at halftime won $60,000 and had a better performance than Reggie Ball in the entire game. It amazes me that he has been there four years and Georgia Tech has never recruited a better signal caller. It is so bad that the Jackets used pass interference penalties as the majority of their offense.

Wake didn't do much better but did enough. Kickers decided it (almost like the World Cup final, only I think Italy and France might have scored more if they played this kind of football.) Ummm, can anyone believe that Wake Forest will be playing in the Orange Bowl? That's still a BCS game right?

Louisville 48 Connecticut 17 This game was never close, except when Connecticut scored a touchdown early that was reversed on replay. Brian Brohm threw for 340 yards and 4 touchdowns, two to junior Harry Douglas, including a 67 yarder. The Louisville players are now the biggest West Virginia fans out there. A win by the Mountaineers will send Louisville to the BCS.

And the update from last night, which I forgot earlier:

Houston 34 Southern Mississippi 20 Kevin Kolb had 258 yards and three touchdowns (2 pass, 1 run), as the Cougars won the C-USA crown. Only 6% of the fans and experts at the beginning of the year thought that the title would go to the Cougars, so this was a mild upset over the course of the season. (By the way, I predicted 35-28... so close). Houston will be heading to the Liberty Bowl thanks to their victory.

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Posted by Benjamin Miraski at 5:30 PM | Comments (0)

September 17, 2006

Week 3 - So Called Separation Saturday

Cheer, cheer for Ol' Notre Dame. Wake up the Echoes.... Oh, wait. Hail to the Victors! The hype surrounding Charlie Weis, Brady Quinn, and the rest of the Fighting Irish may have come to a crashing halt on Saturday afternoon in South Bend. Chad Henne threw his hat back into the Heisman race with his performance leading the Michigan Wolverines over their biggest non-conference rival, 47-21.

Quinn did not do wonders for his own Heisman aspirations in the game. He threw three interceptions, one that was returned for a touchdown, and another that almost found the end zone. He also fumbled late in the fourth, another miscue that led directly to seven points by Michigan's defense. Quinn did total up 232 yards through the air, but until the third quarter, the aggressive Wolverines defense shut down the pre-season favorite for Mr. Everything.

The Irish need to regroup quick or they could go 0 for the state of Michigan next week when they face the offensive powerhouse that is Michigan State. The Spartans have averaged 45 points a game over the last two weeks, and a lot of that has come through the air, an area that Michigan exposed as being still very vulnerable for Notre Dame.

More thoughts on the week that was Separation Saturday:

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Posted by Benjamin Miraski at 11:00 AM | Comments (0)

September 4, 2006

Week 1 - Time to Show What You're Made Of

The big time showdown between Miami and Florida State is still to come tonight, but it is never too early to recap the week that was. The first week served to answer a number of questions, and perhaps raise a few new ones. Teams like Ohio State, Texas, and USC, showed that there may be little drop off since last season, while teams expected to do well, like Oklahoma, Notre Dame, and TCU struggled through their first weeks.

Notre Dame's performance was probably the biggest surprise. While the defense was the big question coming into the season, it was the offense that struggled against Georgia Tech. The Yellow Jacket defense was giving Brady Quinn fits, causing him at times to revert back to some of the bad habits that Charlie Weis had worked so hard to correct in the Heisman hopeful's game. The better offense on the night seemed to belong to Georgia Tech, with Reggie Ball, Tashard Choice, and Calvin Johnson looking like the real deal. Until the last drive of the first half, it looked like this was an upset in the making. However, Weis and Quinn did not want to be denied. Quinn led a final drive just before the half, going 80 yards capped off by a five yard scamper by the senior quarterback. The winning score was provided by Darius Walker, who totaled 99 yards on the ground. The defense did their job in the second half, blanking Georgia Tech and looking much improved over the poor secondary that plagued last season's squad. They will need their secondary in top form when they face Penn State next weekend. The Nittany Lions received a strong opening performance from quarterback Anthony Morelli, who threw for 206 yards and three touchdowns in Penn State's victory.

A few more thoughts on the first weekend of action, with the biggest game of the weekend still to come:

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Posted by Benjamin Miraski at 5:00 PM | Comments (0)

September 26, 2005

Week in Review - Week 4, 2005

It's over! They did it. Finally someone took up the challenge and did it. No, USC still won despite an early scare. And Vanderbilt won too to continue undefeated into October. I am talking about Marshall losing to Central Florida thereby ending the Golden Knights' 17 game losing streak extending back to 2003. With the win, Central Florida is now 1-0 in Conference USA despite their 1-2 record. Are they headed for the conference title game? Probably not, but it is nice to see something good happen for George O'Leary and Central Florida. There was more intense action this week, in week four of the 2005 season.

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Posted by Benjamin Miraski at 11:00 PM | Comments (0)

September 19, 2005

Week In Review - Week 3, 2005

If you like defense in your college football, this was not a week to be watching. Point totals were consistently upwards of 60 with Texas Tech throwing up an 80 spot on Sam Houston before mercifully stopping the scoring with seven minutes left to go. 80 points. Even Oklahoma stopped three short of that when they beat Texas A&M 77-0 two years ago. At least one game proved that defense still mattered and that was the highlight game of the week, Florida against Tennessee, for early dominance in the SEC East. Here's looking at week three of college football.

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Posted by Benjamin Miraski at 4:30 PM | Comments (0)

September 12, 2005

Week in Review - Week 2, 2005

The game of the season? Possible Rose Bowl preview? Well, the speculation can be ended as Texas and Ohio State played an amazing game of football to serve as a major high point of a wild weekend of football. From LSU to Notre Dame, from Texas to Florida State, the college football fan was treated to one of the top weeks in the last three years.

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Posted by Benjamin Miraski at 4:30 PM | Comments (0)

September 7, 2005

Week in Review - Week 1, 2005

The opening week of the 2005 season was a definitely a week of firsts. It was the first game for a number of coaches switching teams around Division 1. It was the first game for a large group of quarterback who are replacing long time starters at their schools. And it was the first loss of the season for some schools who didn't see that number at all last season, at least until their bowl games. Altogether, much to discuss in week one.

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Posted by Benjamin Miraski at 7:00 AM | Comments (0)