Given the events over the past few days, I am both physically and mentally drained. Between the Mets completing their sweep of the Dodgers and Florida knocking off LSU and vaulting to #2 in the rankings, it should be a good time to be me. Instead, I face the consequences of my actions this past Saturday night. I did something, which probably cemented legendary status amongst all who were in attendance, but in retrospect was without question the dumbest thing I have ever done. Let’s put it this way, it’s been 2 days and I still have a pins and needles feeling in my left arm and hand. Feel free to email me and ask what happened, if you are lucky you may even get the video that accompanies it.
Unrelated Chatter: A problem with my cable last night meant that I could not order WWE No Mercy. Apparently I didn’t miss much other than Regal’s weiner…So it looks like the Yankees are going to clean house, starting with manager Joe Torre. I have always thought Torre was incredibly overrated as an in-game manager and it certainly came to light this past week. I don’t think Torre deserves all the blame though as he had nothing to work with in terms of pitching. If you are going to spend that much on offense, how do you totally disregard pitching and defense?…The NHL season has started and my Rangers are off to a fast start. Shanny has been a great addition thus far and hopefully he can lead them past the 6 seed and first round dud that they pulled off last season.
Related Chatter:
-This Friday marks the official start to the college basketball season. Many schools are still following the old “Midnight Madness” format while quite a few will be starting practice earlier as you are now able to start at 7 PM on the 2nd Friday in October. This is a college basketball blog as much as it is a college football blog so look for college basketball coverage to be kicked up a notch as we get closer to November.
-Did Arkansas look impressive at Auburn this past weekend or what? The general consensus was that Arkansas was a year or two away from being a factor in the SEC West but there is no doubt that they are playing good football right now. The victory over Auburn means that they sit quite comfortable atop the SEC West as Auburn now needs for them to lose twice to regain first place.
-Sticking with Auburn; before the season started, they became everyone’s team that was so underrated that they ended up becoming overrated. In my season preview I questioned whether or not they would be able to handle all of the new-found admiration and thus far they have not been able to.
-One half of my national title game prediction has officially been ousted with lowly Florida State losing to lowly North Carolina State. The problems just keep getting worse in Tallahasee and will only continue to get worse with the current regime. Offensive coordinator Jeff Bowden seems to always take the heat but maybe his dad Bobby deserves some as well. Did you ever think you would see the day where no one feared FSU?
-If you are a college coach, you have to be praying that Michigan, California, Tennessee or Louisville are not on your schedule any time soon. All four programs are absolutely rolling and could be among the best in the country. I guess its time to pat myself on the back again because I listed Michigan, California and Louisville as national title sleepers before the season started. Cal and Tennessee have shown a lot of resiliency coming off of marquee loses while Michigan and Louisville has just been flat out impressive thus far.
-We are just about at the halfway point of the season and I am still not sure what to make of West Virginia or USC. USC has had their fair share of injuries to deal with but has held down the fort nonetheless. West Virginia has just been lying in the weeds all season and really have not garnered any attention. Both teams should get tested in the coming weeks and should help give us a better read on them.
-If Texas and Oklahoma play and no one pays attention, did it really happen? I did not get to watch any of this game as I was occupied with LSU/Florida but apparently Colt McCoy continued his maturation as a quarterback.
-Yes, Florida vaulted to #2 in the rankings and looked pretty impressive but I was more surprised at how awful LSU looked. Penalties and turnovers took them out of the game early and you cannot win games like that, especially on the road. A 3rd place finish in the SEC West would no doubt be quite disappointing for folks down in the Bayou.
That’s all for now, Wednesday is another travel day back to NY for me for the playoffs so in all likelihood the next blog should come Friday. Hope everyone has a good week!
