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2006-08-29 posted by vic
  • Football Coverage Day 3
     Click here for days 2 and 1.

  • VT vs UVA
     Sure, it's still almost three months away, but it's never too early to start thinking in-state rivalry.

    That's one of the great things about college football. There are rivalries that no pro teams could ever match: Army-Navy, Harvard-Yale, Auburn-Bama, Ohio State-Michigan, Texas-Oklahoma, Grambling-Southern, Washington-Washington St, Amherst-Williams, Ole Miss-Miss St. Just saying those names sends a shiver down the spine of football fans.

  • College vs Pro
     Speaking of comparing College ball vs. Pro ball, I think it's fairly obvious I'm a dedicated partisan in this matter. I love college ball. Maybe it's because I didn't even care until I got to college. There's no fundy like a recent convert, or something. Whatever it is, I've learned to love it unlike any other sport.

    People might say that pro is better football. Which is true, to a point. It's the best, but it's the same. On Sunday I can flip through the channels and watch every team play the same style. On saturdays, I can see West Coast, spread, run and gun, even Navy's wacky option-based offense. (BTW, Navy isn't on TV often enough)

    But what about the Super Bowl? College doesn't have a true champion. To that I say, so what. Having a Super Bowl hasn't stopped all the Seahawk fans from bitching all summer. Sure the bowls and BCS is messy, but it gives us something to talk about all during the dead zone.

    The hacks over at espn.com tried to look at this question, and gave there lists why college is better and pro is better.

  • Race and Football
     While digging around for today's post, I ran across this column considering why college football is great, and touching on race issues along the way. It's a lot cooler than it sounds. Anytime College Football and To Kill a Mockingbird rub shoulders, you know I'm there.

  • Will gets it
     Virginia Tech fans are familiar with TechSideline, an independent website focused on Virginia Tech athletics. It's way cooler than those stupid Rivals and Scout boilerplate sites. It was built from the ground up by people who love Virginia Tech. Head honcho Will Stewart penned a column titled The Greatest Sport on Earth is Almost Here! It's subscriber content, so I can't give you everything but here's a blurb:

    Yeah, I'm jacked. And another thought I've had lately: while Tech football is my favorite, I've grown to enjoy college football as a whole the last few years. I used to care only about VT, then I cared about what happened in the Big East, and now I'm watching more of college football in general than I ever have. I think a lot of it has to do with Tech's entry into the ACC, because being part of such a great 12-team conference has finally brought home the feeling that the Hokies belong, that they're an integral part of college football, not an outsider looking in.

    That means that I'm not just anticipating Saturday's game with Northeastern. I'm also looking forward, in a big way, to the Thursday night games this week (South Carolina at Mississippi State and Boston College against Central Michigan). The posters on the subscribers message board are counting down the days to the start of VT's season (five days and counting), but me, I'm counting down the days to Thursday.

    Three days and counting.


    Yeah, Will gets it.

  • More bitching about ND hype
     Back on Sunday, we touched on Notre Dame hype. Some of think we're exaggerating. I'm not so sure. Here's a bit from the Columbus Dispatch:

    2. Notre Dame

    If the Fighting Irish, led by Brady Quinn, have improved even a mere 10 percent on defense, that might be enough. Because as the Fiesta Bowl showed, it wasn’t the smash play that got them at critical times last year. It was the gash play.


    Excuse me, but according to one co-worker Ohio State rolled up 617 yard of total offense on Notre Dame in the Fiesta Bowl. 617! That's was a record, no one has ever put that many yards up on them. According to my math, a 10% improvement on that would be only 555 yards of total offense. Call me skeptical, but if you let your opponent put 555 yards on you, you're going to have a tough time winning.