Ohio State is B A C K.

The Bucks finally played up to the hype from the beginning of the season. They put heat on Penn State QB Clark and stopped RB Royster cold. The Buckeye O actually looked decent with QB Pryor hitting some nice passes down field against the PS zone. The passing game also opened up the running game.

Now they get Iowa coming off a loss not only on the scoreboard but of their QB. The BIG question is now that the pressure is back on the Bucks, will they wilt again or will they step up and win the next big game to take another step toward the Rose Bowl.

Iowa has been on the bubble all year long and it finally burst.

Iowa was 4^th in the BcS standings which is the highest they have ever been. Unlike the Oklahoma Boise game, the loss of QB Stanzi did cost them the game against Northwestern. The result knocked them out of the race for the BcS big game. The latest word is that Stanzi will be out for at least 2 weeks which would put him back in time for a bowl game. If the game after the injury is any indication, Iowa won’t be able to beat OSU. To win, OSU will have to beat itself. As any Buckeye fan that watched the game against Purdue can attest, the Buckeyes are perfectly capable of doing exactly that.

Alabama looks very strong in a win over LSU.

The Tide rolled slowly but was able to win a key game over #9 LSU. The 24-15 win was impressive and as predicted here last week was enough to push Bama back into 2^nd in the BcS.

#1 Florida and then #2 Texas win against over matched competition.

Neither game was impressive but they each did enough to win and keep themselves in the race.

Headaches at BcSville.

What is the worst case for the BcS? 6 undefeated teams this far into the season. This is the largest number of teams with perfect records ever after 9 weeks of the college season. Even with the game between Alabama and Florida taking one team out, there is a very good likelihood that we will end up with at least 3 and probably 4 or 5 perfect teams. Even so, don’t even think that will lead to any change. The ONLY way we are going to get a change is to have major donors to universities tell the pinhead presidents “no playoff no money.”

Who among the “others” is the most deserving for a BcS bowl?

From least to most deserving:

Boise State is the least deserving because they have just one quality win against Oregon in week 1. That win lost a lot of luster with Oregon getting blown out last weekend. If you want to be considered a major power, you have to schedule major powers. The complaint is “they won’t come to our house and play. Too bad. Go play them in their house and prove your worth by beating them. BS will finish undefeated but will go to a good but less than BcS bowl.

Cincinnati is more worthy than BS. They have nice wins at Oregon St., and then #21 South Florida (after SF lost their senior QB Grothe) and solid wins at home against both Louisville and Fresno St. But in a home game last week against Connecticut, they showed nerves and were just able to win the game 47-45. Cincy has a tough game on the 13^th against #25 West Virginia. Even if Cincy wins they shouldn’t push past our most deserving undefeated outsider.

TCU has impressive road wins against Clemson and then #16 BYU and has this week’s game against #16 Utah. TCU has an oppressive D to go with an outstanding O to challenge any BcS team. Even if they win out, they will not get an invitation to the BcS big game but will get a BcS bowl. Any team that plays TCU had better be ready or it will get blown out.

That’s what I think. Tell me what you think.

Bill Smith is a former coach of several semi-pro teams, has officiated both football and basketball, done color on radio for college football and basketball and has scouted talent. He is a senior writer for http://NFLDraftDog.com and edits http://fryingpansports.com. He has also published several novels on http://www.eBooks-Library/Contemporary/Author.cfm?AuthorID=1003 and edits http://fryingpanpolitics.blog.com.

Some people live in the sticks. I live in the leaf stems. One of the disadvantages of living next to a lake is that you always seem to need work around the house. Three days ago while workers were doing something for us, they cut the phone line. Thanks to a great job by my favorite workers ATT I got back my Internet but was out of town all day yesterday.

Note I will put up Niblets for October next week.

The Big East needs to be suspended from BcS games for 5 years for fraud.

The BE should be stripped of any chance to get a team in the top 100. Two years ago West Virginia was in a position to play for a national championship with a win over a badly injured Pitt team. The officials were clearly doing everything they could to make that happen. The calls were horrendous and every bad call went against Pitt and for WV. But the game Pitt team won despite the help from blind deaf and dumb officials. The calls were so bad that the BE should have been laughed out of the BcS.

Last night we saw another ranked WV team on the road get every break the zebras could give them to win. Again it didn’t help and Southern Florida without their star QB Grothe beat WV 30-19.

Cincinnati is currently ranked highly in the BcS and we will be watching to see how much help they get. The key reason that a conference wants their teams to be in the big games is MONEY. I will be keeping an eye on the Cincy games to see if the officials cheat their opponents again. THIS HAS TO STOP or the BE will be seen as a total joke.

Georgia v 1 Florida at Jacksonville

The last 3 years Georgia was highly over rated with Stafford at QB. He is gone and so is the belief in the Dogs as a top power. This season Georgia is 4-3 coming off a bad loss 45-19 to Tennessee. After 3 disappointing seasons, there are rumblings of discontent in Athens.

Not everything is roses and sunshine in Floridaville either. The team has been inconsistent and all everything Tebow has been hurt but is now back. He has not had the kind of success that enjoyed last year. The team just got by Arkansas 23-20 then looked lethargic last week against Miss St. in a 29-19 win. Florida will get back on track and win easily.

3 Texas @ 14 Oklahoma St.

This is the game of the day. The Horns have just 2 tough road games between them and a Big12 Championship game. This is the first of those. Texas is coming off a very impressive win over Missouri. The Horn O is vulnerable to really good Ds and OK St. has a good one.

This is the first game that Texas will face really wide open O because Oklahoma did not have their QB for most of that contest. OkS will take some chances because they want to knock off #3 but it won’t work. I think Texas has a handle on the spread and will win easily.

Indiana @ 4 Iowa

Iowa has a huge game on tap in 2 weeks at Ohio State. They will not look past Indiana and will win but look for them to pull the starters before they build up a big win.

That’s what I think. Tell me what you think.

Bill Smith is a former coach of several semi-pro teams, has officiated both football and basketball, done color on radio for college football and basketball and has scouted talent. He is a senior writer for http://NFLDraftDog.com and edits http://fryingpansports.com. He has also published several novels on http://www.eBooks-Library/Contemporary/Author.cfm?AuthorID=1003 and edits http://fryingpanpolitics.blog.com.

I don’t often have good things to say about Washington D.C. or the US Congress. But in this case, they are using the right approach in challenging the BcS—Follow the money.

Sen. Hatch of Utah undoubtedly has his constituents in mind when he pushed for hearings on the BcS. I have no problem with that. The current economic problems could have been avoided had not Congress tried to force social engineering into legislation on the US financial system. At least Hatch is not trying to buy votes by giving away money!

Most major football colleges are public institutions. They get tax payer dollars to help finance their activities including many athletic departments. It is the popularity of college football that generates money for the BCS. Because the “lessor” conferences are not included in the automatic cut of the pot of gold that BcS generates, they don’t share in the bounty unless one of their teams is in one of the games. Then they split a team share and not a league share.

There are some aspects of anti-trust law that could be applied to the BcS. That however must focus on distribution of money and not forcing college presidents to accept a playoff. Let’s face it. The Presidents’ excuses for not allowing a college football playoff contain less truth than the average speech by Castro. The excuses are a sham and if they believe that we accept them as truth, they must think we are a collection of ignorant jerks. Since many of us have had the “advantage” of being educated by the institutions they represent, it tells us a lot about how seriously they take their main business.

College Presidents, the ones that are primarily responsible for voting down any playoff system, are greedy pinheads. That is why I have suggested a number of times that if you want a playoff in college football, contact the big contributors and ask them to tell the pinheads no playoff no money. If enough deep pockets did that, we would have a playoff this season.

Congress will get the attention of the pinheads. Maybe it will lead to a more equitable division of the money but probably not. Maybe it might even lead to a change in the BcS that would come closer to a playoff. That is a long shot. At the very least, it will bother the pinheads. I can get behind anything that makes the seats of the pinheads a little less comfy.

That’s what I think. Tell me what you think.

Bill Smith is a former coach of several semi-pro teams, has officiated both football and basketball, done color on radio for college football and basketball and has scouted talent. He is a senior writer for http://NFLDraftDog.com and edits http://fryingpansports.com. He has also published several novels on http://www.eBooks-Library/Contemporary/Author.cfm?AuthorID=1003 and edits http://fryingpanpolitics.blog.com.

American Football Coaches Association announced Wednesday that the final vote by individual coaches for the USA/Coaches Poll will not be made public. The ONLY vote of coaches that is made public is the final poll. The other polls really don’t care to anyone anyway.

AFCA executive director Grant Teaff said the change will contribute to “making our poll the best poll it can possibly be.” The USA/Coaches poll helps decide which 2 teams play for the BcS Championship will not be released. According to a study done for the organization by Gallop, the votes for the final poll should be kept private to help promote accuracy in the result. WHAT?

I thought that the secret ballot was the very seed of evil. That’s why the President and Congress are so intent on making workers vote for or against unionization in public including union “organizers” with the so called Employee Free Choice Act.

Seriously, the coaches want cover from the criticism that has resulted from their previous votes. Several SEC coaches at their league meeting have already spoken out against the change. That list includes Steve Spurrier (South Carolina) and Mark Rick (Georgia). This change will take effect in the 2010 season unless the decision is reversed.

This is just another step further away from anything that has a sliver of legitimacy of a true national championship. It is pure arrogance because the coaches don’t want to be criticized for their vote. Even worse, it makes a system that is devoid of benefit to the fans who are the customers of college sports even more worthless. Even if there was not collusion between voters to fix the game, this move indicates that they are looking to do that in upcoming years.

The fact is that the ONLY way fans are ever going to get a true playoff in division 1 football is for the big contributors to colleges around the country to cut off their donations until the pinhead president of the school stops voting against a playoff and becomes a supporter. The only thing that college presidents understand is money. Money is the only thing that will get them to change their minds.

I personally stopped tradition of call ins to the Ohio State president during the half time of OSU football games. After Pres. Gee had decried the lack of money from the taxpayer via the Ohio Legislature, I asked him why he didn’t help erase the deficit by cutting his salary in half. He refused to answer the question. The radio station that carried the OSU games never had a call in segment to him at half time again.

That’s what I think. Tell me what you think.

Bill Smith is a former coach of several semi-pro teams, has officiated both football and basketball, done color on radio for college football and basketball and has scouted talent. He is a senior writer for http://NFLDraftDog.com and edits http://fryingpansports.com. He has also published several novels on http://www.eBooks-Library/Contemporary/Author.cfm?AuthorID=1003 and edits http://fryingpanpolitics.blog.com.

By Bill Smith

While I generally believe that the Opposite of Progress is Congress, I congratulate them for trying to do something that would actually improve the lives of college football fans—toss out the BCS in favor of a true playoff. The current bill introduced by Rep. Barton (R-Tx) would prevent the BCS from calling any game a “Championship” that was not the result of a playoff.

Sporting News Today reported Saturday that Constitutional law expert Jonathan Turley expects the current approach would be challenged in Federal Court if it ever became law. The critical issue according to Turley would be the law “wiping out benefits that have already been paid for by companies.”

As usual, the House may have a good goal but is going at it the wrong way. I think there are a couple of different approaches that would work.

The first approach I would try would be based on a Title IX style condition on federal funding for colleges. A college that participated in an discriminatory post season system would be denied federal funding. By definition, any system that did not provide a playoff of at least the top 8 teams would be discriminatory. As greedy as college presidents are, anything that would cost them cash would get their attention.

The second approach I would try would be the unfair advertising approach. There are a number of truth in labeling laws on the books now. This could be enforced through the FCC which has control of the over the air TV broadcasts. The law must include a provision that the BCS would be required to allow the current and future contracts to be converted to cover the new system. That would avoid Mr. Turley’s concern.

The best system for playoffs would be to involve 8 teams. The first round would be played at the home of the higher ranked team a week or two after the league championship games. The second round would be rotated among the current BCS bowl games. The true championship game would be the following week. If the current college schedule had to be reduced by a game, that would be fine with me. I am not interested in seeing Ohio State beat up on Whats-a-Matter U anyway.

This system would not disrupt the current bowl system. After all, who among us wants to interfere with the long and honored tradition of the Poulan Weed Eater Bowl—Oh that doesn’t exist anymore.

In previous columns I have refuted the arguments of the ivy covered presidents of college football like “an extra game will require the young men to miss too much class time.” To those pin heads, I suggest that since the NCAA Basketball Tournament causes students to miss three or four times the class time of football, maybe we should replace it with one game determined by a BCS type system. That would give us much more time for our St. Patrick’s Day shopping!

That’s what I think. Tell me what you think.

Bill Smith is a former coach of several semi-pro teams, has officiated both football and basketball, done color on radio for college football and basketball and has scouted talent. He is a senior writer for http://NFLDraftDog.com and edits http://fryingpansports.com. He has also published several novels on http://www.eBooks-Library/Contemporary/Author.cfm?AuthorID=1003 and edits http://fryingpanpolitics.blog.com.

My email is wesmith2001@hotmail.com.

Technorati Tags: Ohio State,Texas,Pryor,BCS,Fiiesta Bowl,College Football,Tressel,NCAA

Frying Pan Sports

There are reasons that OSU is a professional bridesmaid.

By Bill Smith

Another bowl, another loss. Let me start off by saying that I have had a chance to meet Coach Tressel and he is an outstanding human being. but it still was not enough.

The Good

It was a great game that was fun to watch even for OSU fans except for the last 2 minutes. Tressel came up with more creative gameplan than in the previous big game losses. The teams played as hard as they could.

It was good to see Todd Boeckman get to play in the game. He is a great young man. He lost his job due to two factors out of his control. First, he is a pocket QB without a pocket to throw from. The O line played so badly all year that he was not given enough protection to allow his skills to produce points for the Bucks. The second factor was the arrival of Terrel Pryor. Pryor is a totally different level of athlete. He is the most athletic and polished freshman QB I have seen in 50 years of watching college football.

Prior was able to avoid the Texas rush despite less than optimal protection from the OSU line due to his pure speed and athleticism. He turned poor pass protection into broken field runs that helped set up two touchdowns. He was also able to escape while keeping his eyes down field and complete passes under duress. He needs to work on his footwork so that he can become a more efficient passer. But he has all the tools to be something really special.

The O line did a somewhat better job in both pass protection and sealing the edge on the run than it did in either of the championship games or the game at USC. The blocking scheme seemed to be changed to block the free rusher off the edge. While OSU was not able to keep pressure off its QBs but at least the blocking scheme was more appropriate.

The Bad

In my opinion, the loss to Texas 24-21 last night was due to critical mistakes made in offensive and defensive play calls and lack of second half adjustments.

Third and 2 at the 4—The illegal procedure was critical. I have no doubt that the change in cadence from Pryor to Boeckman had a lot to do with the fowl. That penalty prevented a touchdown on the drive and would have changed the entire game. Even if the game had gone along the same line, it would have at least forced Texas to go for 2 on their last second TD to tie. Rather than putting in Boeckman, a better option would have been to call a pass/run option for Pryor.

The Bucks had 0 luck running up the gut against Texas. The problem is exactly the same one that has stalled the OSU running game since game 1—the O line is not able to blow people off the ball. The OSU linemen were never able to get to the second level. The Texas linebackers were clean and able to collapse to the run and stuff it. Despite the lack of success, Tressel continued to run the ball up the gut again and again. Almost as an after thought, he called a couple of runs to the edge and that worked almost every time he tried it. The problem was that he called 4 or 5 runs up the gut for every run at the edge.

The next issue was the use of Boeckman. Texas knew every time he came in, it was to throw and usually throw deep. If OSU was going to use 2 QBs, they should have mixed up the playcalls to allow some runs with Todd in the game.

The final series of errors was frankly beyond explanation. Texas moved the ball like the OSU defense was back in Columbus. The Bucks played a loose zone with no effect. The worst part came on the final Texas pass. There were 34 seconds left with the ball in the red zone. For some reason, it looked like the Bucks were in a man coverage with no help deep. Texas didn’t have any time outs, and needed a touchdown to win. Even so, no deep help allowed WR Quan Cosby to break one tackle and get to the endzone.

Ohio State could have and should have won the game. But their failures inside the red zone killed their chances.

That’s what I think. Tell me what you think.

Bill Smith is a former coach of several semi-pro teams, has officiated both football and basketball, done color on radio for college football and basketball and has scouted talent. He is a senior writer for NFLDraftDog.com and edits fryingpansports.com. He has also published several novels on http://ebooks-library.com/index.cfm and edits http://fryingpanpolitics.blog.com.