This past weekend was amazing to witness. I watched the first half of the Alabama/Georgia game and came away with one conclusion: Nick Saban is a college football genius. That is a prepared football team that comes ready to play. They have already upset Clemson and threw them into a tailspin and now they thump Georgia and let’s see what happens now. They were up 31-0 at halftime and played inspired defense against a team with a top 10 draft choice at QB and a first round choice at tailback in Moreno.

Florida lost. Tebow fumbled and as i watched the last highlight I wondered why he wasn’t standing under center on 4th down. Everyone in the world knew what the play was going to be and it failed horribly. All 22 people ended up in the pile. It was like watching a traffic jam car crash, slow and painful. I thought Florida was the team to beat this year but it goes to show you how tough the SEC is. Alabama will still have to play LSU, Auburn. It doesn’t get easier at all for any of them. While BYU keeps sliding up the rankings playing weak conference opponents, out of their control, teams from the SEC keep beating each other up and hurting their chances of a national title. Meanwhile BYU, UTAH, BOISE ST all keep creeping up the rankings and I’m not saying they shouldn’t but the system is so jacked up in college football it is crazy. When they finally decide on a playoff they are going to wonder how and why they did it this way for so many years.

I honestly believe that college football is a playoff away from being the greatest sport in the United States and I truly believe that. If they thought March Madness brought attention this would be unbelievable.

That was a very good football game and the tailback for Oregon St is a good football player. He did that against arguably the best defense in the country. He’s tough. USC lacked some mental toughness though and it showed. They played from behind as if they were panicked and had a serious lack of compusure. McKnight was not relevant to the game at all and Sanchez couldn’t pick up his team when it was needed. Sanchez is a pro and is a gifted football player but it didn’t show last night. That interception he threw with 3 minutes left really sealed the deal for Oregon st and showed a sign of weakness for USC. What Oregon St did better than anyone could expect was control the ball. They were able to really run the ball and keep that offense on the sideline. If the game went another quarter I could see USC winning by 2 touchdowns but they didn’t and should be out of the National Championship race. Losing 1 game is usually the kiss of death for a PAC 10 team but not for an SEC or BIG 10 team. This year will be a little different because Ohio St got killed by USC so they need to be ranked after USC no matter what in my opinion.

Anyway, it was the best thursday night game I’ve ever seen.

We are 4 games into the season people and BYU fans are back in full force. In fact, with the internet it is worse than I could ever imagine. The BYU fan is unlike most other college football fans. I’ve talked about it before and I don’t shy away from the fact that I hope BYU loses every single football game but they won’t. BYU is loaded this year and playing the typical schedule of pansies that we have all grown accustomed to. I can’t fault them for being able to beat most of the teams in the MWC or for trying to schedule PAC 10 teams because that’s at least a good effort trying there. I just hope they lose every single week and it is only because the ‘BYU’ fan annoys me to no end. They speak of championships and Ty Detmer like he came out of the BIBLE. Lavell Edwards is standing on the rung closest to heaven and now Bronco Mendenhall is climbing fast.

My theory is to give BYU what they want most and put them in the PAC 10. I will never say that they couldn’t compete because they could. BYU has a first team of offense and defense that can play with anyone in the country. However, week after week and when injuries take their toll you would see that BYU would lose 3-5 games each year in that conference. It’s ok to admit it BYU fans but your 2nd and 3rd team players just aren’t comparable to the ‘typical’ Pac 10 team. Give UCLA a year or two under their coach and get his players in there. Oregon is a good program and Arizona St is getting there. Byu has the luxury to play teams like Wyoming where starters are out by the 3rd quarter and that will continue and I can’t fault them for being that much better than most teams this year. I have to give credit where it is due. Heck, (BYU term) they beat UCLA by 100 points so what more could they have done.

Here’s my point. Let BYU go undefeated and then lets start talking about the BCS, not 4 weeks in. Max Hall goes down and BYU is in a world of hurt to go undefeated. Let BYU stay healthy and let them play LSU/ALABAMA/AUBURN/FLORIDA/USC in a bowl game and see what happens. I promise you it won’t be pretty and I’ll be laughing my head off on the couch drinking my non caffeinated soda.

My brothers and i have a joke that never gets old. The joke ties two references together by using a name change. Example: Did you hear N’Sync changed their name? N’Sync On the Block. The joke can go on forever and we think it is funny at least but I have one for Matt Millen. Did you hear Matt Millen changed his name? Isiah Thomas Millen.

That’s the best way to describe the disaster that was Matt Millen. He was terrible at his job. His draft picks, his player decisions and the play on the field is ridiculous. He drafted the best receiver each year or as he saw them and they rarely have panned out. He tried with Charles Rogers and failed, he tried with Mike Williams and failed. Roy Williams is good and so is Calvin Johnson but not when the Qb is a has been/never was who simply can’t get the job done. Jon Kitna is not a starter in the NFL that gets wins for his team and shouldn’t have a job. The team defense has been neglected in the early rounds and it shows. What took so long?

Now what is Millen going to do? He will want another front office job but nobody is that stupid or desperate. He may want to go back into the booth but his reputation has taken a big big hit here and a network has better options there. I question ESPN’s use of Steve Phillips for baseball sometimes because of his noted failures and Millen will go down in history as a waste of 5 plus years at the position. He set the team back an entire decade literally. They aren’t close to being good. The only people upset at the firing is the rest of the division because Detroit used to mean 2 wins for everyone on their schedule and maybe not so anymore.

At least Hurrican Millen has finally left Detroit and left the whole football team in his wake. Good luck rebuilding Lions fans, I hear Isiah Thomas wants a shot at football.

Can you think of something worse in sports than to be the Raiders head coach? I honestly can’t. I’d rather coach a team in the WNBA than the Raiders. Lane Kiffin has the job right now and every day a rumor is started or continued that he’ll be let go. Every day Kiffin wakes up and wonders if today is his last day on the job. He answers questions about it all day long and each of his players wonder if today is the day they get a new coach.

Al Davis has to realize that this simply isn’t working for him. The last winning coach they had was Jon Gruden and he got to walk to Tampa Bay. After he left the Raiders got Bill Callahan who took them to a Super Bowl in his first year on the job. Soon he tanked and was canned basically after two seasons. Then they hired Norv Turner who has nearly been hired by every single team in the NFL. This guy has been given more chances to be a head coach than anyone I can think of. He’s failed so often as a head coach but people still keep trying to give him a job. He didn’t cut it after two seasons and was canned. They brought in Art Shell because apparently he didn’t prove he could cut it the first time so he went 2-14 again and was fired. Now we have Lane Kiffin who was brought in to clean up the crap and teach a rookie QB who isn’t ready to be a starter in the league. They’ve played better than nearly anyone expected yet he’s about to get fired so we can start the circus all over again.

Kiffin should’ve kept his job at USC and ended up a head coach at some major university somewhere. Instead he becomes another casualty of the Raiders coaching circle and that’s nothing to really be proud of. BUYER BEWARE if you get offered that job after Kiffin is gone.

Tom Brady goes down.  Peyton Manning comes back slow from injury.  LT gets hurt early on and says it isn’t bad but he isn’t practicing this week.  BoB Sanders is out now for 4-6 weeks with an ankle sprain.  Shawne Merriman is done for the year and I could keep on going.  I decided to keep going…Devin Hester got hurt dodging someone.  Darren McFadden, who looks really good by the way, is questionable this week and his running mate for the Raiders is out also.  Football is prone to injuries but when the league loses it’s mvp for the season and defensive player of the year for 4-6 weeks that is a bad start.

I have to admit that I am a little suspicious of how they listed BOB Sanders.  4-6 Weeks for a high ankle sprain?  I’ve sprained my ankles numerous times horribly and I never missed 4 weeks as a result.  This is either the Colts spinning it or he is hurt worse than we really know.  I’m guessing the latter.  Sanders plays ferocious defense and is a big hitter.  Forte, for the Bears, got drilled by Sanders opening week and I think he’ll never forget that hit.  Sanders is needed by the league and by the Colts especially.

I’m just glad that football is back even though my fantasy team is horrible right now.  I actually drafted Vernon Davis.  Sorry to get sidetracked but I drafted Vernon Davis and I expect to win.  Kind of like the Bears thinking they can go far with Kyle Orton or Super Rex Grossman.

Here’s to hoping nobody gets hurt this week…

I never knew his name was really Ed Hochuli.  I knew him as ‘muscly ref’.  My whole family has called him ‘muscly ref’ for years now.  Have you ever watched him and noticed that he doesn’t fully extend his arms when signalling a first down?  He’s a muscle bound ref freak of nature and I’ve loved him for it. 

I’m not a Bronco fan and I was really screaming at the tv when Ed Hochuli called Jay Cutler’s fumble a pass the other day because I knew it would mean the Broncos would score and win the game and that’s what happened.  However made I may have been at ‘muscly ref’, i couldn’t stay mad at him.  He does a great job and usually calls a great game.  I know of refs that when i see them I question their crew but with ‘muscly ref’ he doesn’t screw up much.  Sure he bothched this one and really put the Chargers in a hole, but it wasn’t Ed’s fault that let the Broncos put up 30 points before that.  I’ve blamed refs for all sorts of losses in my day and I still think that Sean Higgins pushed off in the 1989 final four that put Michigan over Illinois and I blame the ref for that, but this game was lost because of the Chargers defense and Norv Turners inability of being a real winning coach despite all the pub that says he can.

My wife was watching the news the other day and was astonished that Tom Brady got hurt and would miss the entire season.  I was astonished she knew who he was actually, but not really.  Tom Brady is world famous and the MVP of the league.  He is coming off the best season a qb has ever had arguably.  I was hoping he’d get hurt though.  After all, he’s in the ESPN magazine clutching his leg with a caption that says “ONE PLAY AWAY” and isn’t that the truth. 

Where I screwed up is another story and I related this to a few of my friends yesterday and I’ll get back to my wife’s perspective on this.  She sees Tom get hurt and he first comment is “does he get paid even though he’s hurt?”  I said, “of course he does”.  She said “What about endorsements?”.  I answer “he averages 10 million a year in endorsements and that won’t change.”  Then she says “that’s the life.  He gets hurt and still gets paid and still gets his endorsements and everything else.”  Then i say what could be the dumbest line a husband of 14 years could say.  I say “To top it off he gets Gisele whenever else he wants to.”  The glare I got was unbelievable and deserved i suppose and I’m an idiot who can’t shut his mouth sometimes. 

The fact is that Tom Brady seems to have the life in spite of his recent injury.  I never want to see someone get hurt but I’m happy the Pats won’t be as good.  They can’t be.  The Qb that is going to start for them hasn’t started a game since high school.  He wasn’t even a starting college QB.  The Pats are going to suffer with this and probably turn out better down the road because that’s how they are and that’s how Belichick coaches. 

I hope Brady comes back from this injury as good as he was before because the league needs Tom Brady and my fantasy team needs him…isn’t that what we are all really concerned about?

Tom Brady is done.  I can’t believe this happened.  Tom Brady is out for the year after suffering a knee injury in the game yesterday.  This kills the Pats.  How much of a threat is Randy Moss going to be without a good QB?  That’s right, it was only a few years ago that Moss was a Raider with a terrible QB and he nearly dropped off the face of the league.  He didn’t do much.  He had a good game yesterday and is a great receiver but Matt Cassel isn’t the answer here. 

What does this mean to the NFL?  It’s a big hit.  No league wants their marquee player out for the season the first week in, especially who was on a team that hasn’t lost a regular season game in over a year.  The Patriots had targets on their backs to begin with and now they are like a wounded animal.  I expect if teams have a chance to crush them now, they will.  Do you think Mangini is looking forward to Belichick coming to New York this year?  I’ll watch that game and I hate both teams but I want to see how Bill does with QB who would be a 3rd string guy in Chicago.  I’m not sold.

The Patriots are going to have some tough weeks coming up and will have to change into a ball control type team.  They have an easy enough schedule and play in a weaker than most division.  I think they still win 10 games and make the playoffs and i expect Tom Brady to be back by the Super bowl if they make it.  It wouldn’t surprise anyone if that happens.

My wife hates me.  I spent all Saturday in front of the tv watching football games.  I tried to do my list of honey do’s but I failed in a lot of areas.  In fact, from 4-10 pm I didn’t move except during halftime to get more food.  It was awesome. 

I had looked forward to the Illinois vs Missouri game for at least 6 months.  Both teams would be ranked and it looked to be promising.  MIssouri got out to a good sized halftime lead and it was over but I couldnt’ turn the channel.  One thing the internet has really boomed is the recruiting side of things and I found myself looking for recruits that I’d heard so much about and keeping track of them.  I loved it.  I felt more involved in the program and it only helps college football and college athletics in general.  As the game came to an end, 52-42 for Missouri, I was grateful that the season had started.  I was grateful that Pitt lost to Bowling Green at home.  I was happy to have seen Beanie Wells get off to a good start only to get hurt later.  I got to watch some great players who will be great pros and I loved every minute of it.  After all Michigan lost and I don’t know what is better than that.