Good Weekend Of College Football

[R. Rich]

I watched the Penn State-Michigan State game, of course. WOW!! Imagine if PSU had run the ball that well during the season. The defense was as tough as they had been and the offense FINALLY gave them some support. Zack Mills made up for a lousy season by running extremely well in his final college start. I guess Galen Hall and JoePa realized that the WRs are horrible and they got tired of them dropping passes all over the place, so they had Zack run the ball more with QB draws and sweeps. It worked. A few players who stood out: DE Tamba Hali-what an INT!! Anwar Phillips-great coverage and toughness all day. Paul Posluszny-all over the field making big hits and big plays! Dan Connor-man, is he going to be special! The best thing is that ALL of them should be back for next year! This Penn State defense is going to be VERY tough next season. Now, if they can get a few decent WRs and if Morelli pans out at QB...

 

 

Michigan loses to OSU and is now reduced to playing in.............the Rose Bowl!! Way to go, Wisconsin! Another pretender posing as a contender. Who's the next one to be exposed........Boise State? I dunno. I watched and taped their game against Louisiana Tech on Saturday and they are not bad. I'd still like to see what they can do against a ranked team, and we'll get our chance soon enough.

 

 

Florida-Florida State was a nice one, too. FSU was waaay too soft against the run, especially in the closing moments when they needed to shut the running game down. Why, when they were trying to get the ball back and stop Florida from killing the clock with the run, were their DL using such wide splits and making huge rushing lanes for the Gators????

 

 

Hey DPR4444, I did tape the Louisville-Houston game this weekend, so I'll be able to give you some thoughts on McCune after I have the chance to view it.

 

 

I was able to tape the Temple game (vs BC), so I had an opportunity to look at a couple of Temple players I had heard good things from. QB Walter Washington is a solid player. He is a pretty good passer and is a dangerous scrambler. He did well with both on Saturday, finishing with nearly 300 yards passing and 100 yards rushing (283yds/2TDs/1INT passing; 73 yards on 21 carries). He may end up being voted the Big East Player of the Year, according to some articles I've seen, though I don't think he'll get the award. Still, not a bad effort at all from a team not known for a lot of football standouts, especially on offense. Also, LB Rian "Goo" Wallace looked impressive too, even if the overall defense didn't. He showed good reaction skills, the ability to get upfield quickly, and even had a few instances where he looked pretty good dropping back in coverage, which I had heard was a liability for him. I'll be monitoring this guy to see where he ends up in the draft, if he decides to come out (he's a junior).

 

 

I did watch a bit of the Utah-BYU game too. I found it interesting that at one point early on, with the score 7-0 Utah, how the announcer pointed out that "...this is the team that averages 45 points a game..." Well, they finished with a 52-21 win. What were they supposed to do, score 45 points in one quarter? Congrats to the Utes for finishing the regular season unbeaten, screwing up the BCS in the process. More fuel to the "set up a playoff system for Division 1a" fire.

 

 

I see how OU has claimed the #2 spot all by themselves by beating the crap out of national power Baylor last weekend. I thought the new rankings and the BCS were supposed to eliminate teams' need to run up the score on opponents in an effort to better their ranking. The more things change, the more they stay the same, I guess. It's one of my pet peeves, as it cost my Nittany Lions a national title in '94. No place for winning with class, I see. Maybe next time they'll just schedule my alma mater, Shippensburg University, and beat them by 98. Man, they might have overtaken USC had they done that.