Iowa surprisingly more deserving of title game than Texas Tuesday, October 20, 2009

I have tickets to the Ohio State-Iowa game November 14 but can't go due to a class.

I was going with an Iowa fan and planned on cheering on the Hawkeyes, all the more now since Ohio State has less to play for than ever.

If Iowa wins out, they deserve to face the SEC champion in the National Championship game. I'm not predicting they'll win out, and if they stumble they deserve nothing. But if Iowa does go undefeated it will be an injustice when they're in the Rose Bowl rather than college football's National Championship Farce.

The SEC isn't college football's version of the NHL central division or anything, but it's clearly head and shoulders above the other conferences. Its winner, if it has one or fewer losses, should be penciled in right now as the #1 ranked team going into the college postseason.

Pushing Cincinnati and Boise State aside due to their conferences' inferiority, who would be the most deserving undefeated #2, Iowa or Texas?

Texas plays their entire division (OK, OK State, Baylor, A&M, and Tech) along with Colorado, Missouri and Kansas in the north. They'll add another Big 12 victory over Kansas, Kansas State or Nebraska in the Big 12 championship game. The rest of their schedule is filled out with non-BCS conference cupcakes, all of which they've already waxed.

Iowa, meanwhile, plays the hardest possible Big 10 schedule (i.e., they do not play Illinois or Purdue). That includes Ohio State, Penn State, Wisconsin, Minnesota, Northwestern, Michigan, Michigan State and Indiana. They too play non-BCS conference cupcakes, but only two. Their other two games were against the Big 12's Iowa State and the PAC-10's Arizona.

Are Iowa State or Arizona good? No. But neither is the worst team in their conference, either. And at least Iowa schedules real teams to play. Arizona actually borders on respectability.

If nothing else, Iowa deserves the championship bid just because they assembled a legitimate schedule.

There is no reason to think the Big 12 is any better than the Big 10 this season. The main argument would be that Texas lifts the conference, but if the point is to compare Texas to Iowa, they don't count. Yes, Illinois, Indiana and Purdue all belong in the MAC right now, but hey, Iowa only played one of them. Meanwhile, Texas feasts on Baylor, A&M and Kansas State.

Iowa's Big 10 oppoents have beaten Notre Dame, Arizona, Navy, Syracuse, and Iowa State this year. That's roughly equivalent to Texas' Big 12 opponents, who have beaten Georgia, Ole Miss, Illinois, Wake Forest and Duke. That's the same number of out-of-conference BCS conference (or relevant independent) wins, and if you played those teams against each other 1 through 5 high school tennis style, the teams the Big 10 beat would likely go 4-1.

The other argument for the Big 12 is that they did better in bowl games last year than the Big 10. Obviously true, but Iowa can't be blamed for that because they crushed South Carolina last year in the Outback Bowl.

If you want a "legit" argument for Texas, it's that they've earned the right to be there because they should have been declared co-national champions last year. But that's the problem with FBS. I could tell you that God told me to vote Iowa State number one and no one could tell me that's not right.

Until the beauty pageant ends and an objective system takes over, stick with FCS like John, or use this simple formula: Team with best record is better, but in case of tie, go with team who played actual BCS conference schools. By this measure, Iowa wins by two.

Pats cut Galloway, trade in works? And Predictions review

Joey Galloway has been cut by the Patriots.

Three others have been cut as well, and people are wondering whether the Patriots are setting up a trade, with ProFootballTalk throwing Shawne Merriman's name out there. (If Rodney Harrison were still with the team, perhaps their HGH dealer could've been used to help bring Shawne into the fold).

I would like to point everyone to my regular season predictions, not because I made any good predictions but because I lamented about how everyone loves every Patriot personnel move, even the dumb ones.

Fred Taylor is injured (which shouldn't be a surprise) and Joey Galloway is unemployed. Richard Seymour just played a key role in beating the Eagles.

I know it seems silly to criticize the Patriots since they just won a game 69-0, but as Joe Torre would say, that only counts as one win. The Patriots are far from the Colts and Saints of the NFL world right now.

By the way, those playoff predictions weren't bad. I missed out on the Giants and Broncos. But who didn't miss out on the Broncos? And the Giants sill have plenty of time for a late-season collapse, while the Eagles always play better later in the year. I predicted 3rd-place finishes for both the Jets and Ravens, and while that looked dumb at first, the tables have now turned.

Clearly my Panthers playoff pick was a mistake, but look at what I saw that few did: The Bengals in the playoff race, the Saints as the best team in the NFC, the 49ers with a division lead, and the Titans being bad. And I still think the Texans and Eagles can come through for me.

Obviously the Aaron Smith injury hurts the Steelers chances. If had to re-pick now it'd be hard to pick against Peyton.

Home Coming Weekend Monday, October 19, 2009

Homecoming was phenomenal. Unfortunately, as this is a football blog, I cannot go into too much detail about Friday Nights Hockey game. However, I cannot resist thanking Boston University defense man Eric Gryba who scored the final goal of the night, snapping a 2-2 tie. In spite of Gryba scoring the deciding goal in a 3-2 game, everyone else is giving UMass forward Will Ortiz credit. Some stupid rule about pucks you knock into your own net not counting for your stats. Don't worry Eric, I know you scored the game winning goal and I will do my best to make sure everyone else does.

The football game had a lot to live up to and it did not disappoint. The Wildcats scored real quick on a 50+ yard touchdown bomb to a WR Scott Sicko. Meanwhile, UMass scored on 2 of its last three possessions of the half to make the score 10-7. After Julian Tally caught a touchdown pass to take the lead, he had the most over the top celebration ever. He was mobbing his teammates jumping up and down and hooting and hollering and many of the UMass players joined him in this. You would have thought they had won the Super Bowl, if not accomplished much more with that catch.

If I were a UNH fan, I would have been quite upset by the whole display. Thankfully, I am not a UNH fan and I instead enjoyed it. I must admit I was surprised he wasn't flagged. But as I always say, the ref knows better than I do when to flag people. He's the professional, I'm just a nobody in the stands. If he said Talley wasn't celebrating excessively, who am I to question him?

Reading the game notes, it turns out it was Talley's first TD reception. After he calmed down, Havens went over to shake his hand, and Talley wouldn't shake it. Instead, he grabbed Havens and lifted him up 3 feet in the air.

The teams went in the half with the good guys leading 10-7. This is my first year as a season ticket holder, and I do love my seats. However, sometimes my section is quiet. If the defense needs help on third down and wants crowd noise, they're getting it from me and maybe two other people. Then the UMass Minuteman Marching Band comes out and everyone goes nuts. It's confusing. Don't get me wrong, I'm all for the band. But the defense needs noise. The band doesn't. The 20 people who showed up from UNH were making more noise of UMass 3rd downs than the 13,000+ UMass fans were on UNH third downs. My friend and I decided to come up with a game plan to change this.

A man a few rows above me said he recognized us from the hockey game the night before. Once the band left the field, we used the rest of half time to practice a time tested chant at the University of Massachusetts. The man and his two sons would point at us and yell "U!" as loud as they could. My friend and I would point back at them and yell "MASS!" as loud as we could and the process repeats. We continued these shenanigans at the start of the third quarter and also would scream like there was no tomorrow when the Minutemen were on defense, especially on third down. Slowly but surely, people started joining in with us. Instead of 3 people, we had 5, then 10, then 20 people screaming. Other sections were doing similar things.

The University of New Hamsphire tied the game up in the third quarter in spite of all our noise. Then Havens threw interceptions on back to back series and that Sicko guy caught another TD to take the lead in the fourth quarter to make the score 17-10 bad guys. UMass answered with a field goal to cut the lead to 4.

At some point in time, the UMass team realized the crowd needed some encouragement. Senior Safety Jeremy Miles was injured in the first half of the game. I think he had a concussion judging by the fact that when he got up and tried to walk off the field, he looked like he was drunk. You could tell he had no clue what was going on or where he even was and trainers had to guide him off the field. From how long he was on the trainers table, I can only imagine he had no idea for quite a while. Around this time, Miles came over to the crowd and started waving a towel and moving his hands in the air encouraging everyone to make noise. Everyone started screaming. Up until that point, it was the loudest I've heard the place this year. Last year's Delaware game might have been a tad louder. I don't know. The defense forced UNH to punt.

UMass got the ball back and Jon Hernandez, once again playing for an injured Tony Nelson, broke a 42 yard run for a touchdown. I swear I called it. You can ask my friend Rob. I knew he was due. Game 1, no long TD. Game 2 58 yard TD against Albany. Game 3 no long TD. Game 4 36 yard TD against Stony Brook. Game 5 no long TD. It doesn't take a Master of Mathematics to realize pretty much all even games, he has a long TD run. Odd ones, not so much. But who cares? This was an even numbered game, and Hernandez made it 20-17 UMass.

When the defense took the field everyone on the UMass bench was over at the crowd screaming at us to scream at them. Havens looked like a mad man jumping up and down. I usually sit to not block the people's view behind me, but when your starting quarterback does that you have to out jump and out shout him. It's a rule. I can't take the credit for standing either. The father who I was doing the "U" "MASS" thing with started yelling at me to stand, and I admit he was right. Most of the section joined us. McGuirk has metal benches, so people were not only screaming but also pounding on the benches. It was the new loudest I've heard the stadium this year. UMass got the ball back again and drove down the field and added on a field goal to make it 23-17 with under 2 minutes left. Good things happen when you make noise on defense.

Of course, as the number 4 team in the nation, New Hampshire just wouldn't die quietly. They drove down the field, helped a lot by UMass penalties, and got inside the UMass 10 yard line with three seconds left. The UNH QB dropped back to pass, was met by a UMass defender in the backfield and threw the ball to the end zone in desperation. It was picked off by CB Kumar Davis who sealed the deal.

UMass is currently tied for first in the CAA North with UNH at 2-1 in conference play. Overall, they're 1.5 behind Richmond who is 4-0 in the conference and 0.5 behind Villanova who is 3-1 in CAA play.

Next week they're on the road against the Spiders. If UMass wins this game, they have the inside track at winning the conference. Everyone in the CAA would have at least 1 conference loss, and UMass would have beaten Richmond and UNH head to head. I feel like I say this every week about the Minutemen, but next week is the biggest game of the season. Stinks that it's on the road. But it's awesome that after last week's beating I'm downing more of the UMass Kool-aide!

Aaron Smith out for months, but Hood won't benefit much Tuesday, October 13, 2009

Steelers DE Aaron Smith could be out for months.

Now THIS is a blow. The Steelers have gotten by at 2-2 without Troy Polamalu, who returns this week to face the Browns. But history shows that losing Aaron Smith is a much worse prospect. In 2007, Tomlin's first year, Smith was lost for the season and the defense crumbled. He is one of the most underrated players in the NFL.

Normally, my prognosis would be 3-4 wins off the regular season total, putting us at 7, 8 or 9 wins on the season and a first round exit in the playoffs at best.

However, there is a wildcard: 2009 first round pick Ziggy Hood. The guys seems smart and is universally regarded as a good pick, yet he's hardly seen the field in 2009. With the injury, will he now be a starter? Unfortunately, no. Tomlin says the situation will be defensive end by committee.

I'm preparing to cover my eyes in horror. Hopefully Hood impresses this week in practice and gets the bulk of the playing time. He might not be "ready" in the eyes of the coaching staff, but he's the only backup with the talent to make something happen at that position.

Massachusetts@Delaware Post Game Saturday, October 10, 2009

The genius I am, I picked the right score. That's right. The Minutemen scored 27 points, just as I predicted. Unfortunately, Delaware didn't get the memo and scored 43 instead of 24. Jerks.

It's hard to say what went wrong. UMass couldn't get anything going. The first drive, they went all Mark Whipple on me and went for it on 4th and 2 from around the Delaware 30. Havens tried to hand off to Tony Nelson and the exchanged was less than optimal as it ended up on the turf. It was all Delaware after that.

Armando Cuko hit a 51 yard field goal into the wind at one point and time, so we have that going for us. I'm listening to the post game conference right now on the UMass radio network. If Kyle Havens is interviewed and has a confident quote, I'll let you know.

The thing that frustrates me most about this is UMass had a bye week last week. They had two weeks to prepare for the Blue Hens, and the Minutemen did absolutely nothing. Delaware did whatever it wanted to, whenever it wanted to, wherever it wanted to. It's one thing to lose. It's another thing to get completely blown out after a bye week. Delaware beat UMass 43-27. And believe me, the final score makes the game seem closer than it actually was.

Well, UMass is 3-2 overall and 1-1 in the CAA. It's only gonna get a lot tougher from here.

Next weekend is homecoming at UMass, and it looks like we have two great (and by great I mean evil) opponents. Friday Night, the hockey team battles the defending National Champion Boston University Terriors. Saturday, the University of New Hampshire Wildcats (5-0, 2-0 CAA, 1-0 FBS) come to McGuirk. Hopefully they'll wash the terrible taste I currently have in my mouth.

Massachusetts @ Delaware Friday, October 9, 2009

Tomorrow, 6PM, at Tubby Field @ Delaware Stadium the maroon hot Massachusetts Minutemen will take the field against the Delaware Fightin' Blue Hens.  

Delaware is a team that I hate, but in an extremely respectful way.  I almost like them, which is weird.  Their fan base is second to none in Division 1 when it comes to traveling to away games.  Note how I said Division 1.  I did not include FCS at the end.  That wasn't an oversight.  They have one of the most active boards of any FCS school, and unlike most other FCS schools, football is king.  I like that.  Every time someone talks about cutting sports at UMass, people (mainly basketball only fans) want to get rid of football.  I'm pretty sure they have the death penalty in Delaware for suggesting the school cuts football.  

Our current Vice President attended Delaware and played Freshman football there.  He ran into the team at an airport on the campaign trail last season, and told them he thought they'd kick Ohio State's ass in football.  Mind you, Delaware was TERRIBLE last season.  They went 4-8 overall and 2-6 in the conference.  And here we had a Vice Presidential Candidate claiming the Blue Hens would kick the Buckeyes' ass.  No one mocked that statement like they would have if Sarah Palin had said it, and there's a reason no on mocked it:  cause it's true (or people don't hate Biden like they do Palin...one of those reasons.  I'm not sure which).

As I was saying, the Hens had a terrible season last year after Joe Flacco (who?) graduated.  They came up to Amherst around the same time last year.  I don't remember the exact records, but both teams needed a win badly to have any shot at the playoffs, and UMass rose to the occasion, beating the Hens 17-7.  I was sitting on the visitors side a section away from the Blue Hen band and all their fans.  The sweetest moment of any UMass game in any sport I've ever been to was Jeremy Miles intercepting a pass and running it back for 50 yards to clinch victory.  The contrast of the ecstasy experienced by myself and other UMass fans and the agony of the Delaware fans was fabulous.  Then UMass played lousy for the rest of the season and also didn't make the playoffs, but at least they beat Delaware!

So now we have the same sort of scenario.  UMass is 3-1 (1-0 in CAA) and traveling to Delaware (3-2 overall, 1-2 in the CAA).  Delaware needs this game badly.  I think 4 losses are the most the committee will allow for playoff teams, and after this Delaware still has James Madison and Navy on their schedule.  As most 4 loss teams don't get in, this is about as must win as it gets for Delaware.  They gotta beat 2 of the 3, and UMass might be the easiest.  

On the UMass side, the schedule gets depressingly tough after this.  4 of the next 5 are against playoff teams, including @ defending national champion Richmond 10/24.  You have to think to go 2-2 against those 4 would be successful.  That means if they lose to Delaware and go 2-2 against the playoff teams, UMass would already be at 4 losses.  As most 4 loss teams don't get in, this is about as must win as it gets for UMass.  They gotta beat 3 of the 5, and Delaware's one of the easier ones.

I've heard so many great things about Delaware's Stadium and their fans.  They always sell out and they're loud.  It's suppose to be a great place to watch a game, but I can't get down there right now.  Hopefully next rotation when the two play down there.  Thankfully, Delaware apparently runs a live webcast of the game, which I will be watching.  I'm going with a close game, but the Minutemen win, 27-24.  

Roughing the Passer Tuesday, October 6, 2009

Ray Lewis is complaining about roughing the passer calls on Tom Brady which happened last Sunday. I dislike the Ravens, especially Ray Lewis, but I have to agree with him. I only saw one of the two plays (I went to see the Providence Bruins open up against the Springfield Falcons so I missed everything after the Raven got hurt) and when the flag was thrown, I objected. A Raven accidenctally brushed Brady's helmet, Brady fell down, a flag was thrown. It was a terrible call.

There's an article in yesterday's Boston Herald about it. Lewis is quoting as saying "People work too hard for that. And the embarrassing part about it is you see it constantly every week- emphasis on protecting the quarterback... It's embarrassing fo us to even keep a game going like that, give them momentum after they go three-and-out. We stop them, see a flag for a personal foul and Brady's laughing? That ain't no personal foul if you're still smiling...Did it lose the game? Absolutely not, but it's just embarrassing to go in there and play a game the way we did and you get that."

I agree with Ray Lewis about something having to do with football, and that makes me want to throw up.

I understand that it gets called both ways and will even out over the course of the season. In week 1, I complained about 2 terrible roughing the passer calls against New England. One could argue it's even now, but I still don't like it. The Herald had this quote from Brady, "(Quarterbacks are) holding the ball, we're unprotected. We're sitting back there defenseless. They deserved to get those calls..."

This is complete crap. The QB has at least 5 linemen to block for him. Many times there are tight ends and backs which stay in pass protection too. In those cases, more than half the offense is devoted to protecting the QB.

(In case you are wondering, disagreeing with Brady about football is fine in my mind. If I were disagreeing with Bledsoe, then I'd want to throw up.)

Ray Lewis had another quote in the Herald, which I think was probably either a joke or else said in frustration and wasn't meant to be taken literally "That's not football and that's the embarrassing part about it... You can't stop drives like that, you can't throw flags and say 'Oh, you touched the quarterback.' Put flags on them, put a red buzzer on them, so if we touch them, they're down."

Like I said, I don't think he literally meant the part about flags and buzzers, but it's where we are heading. I'm told the Patriots got screwed in 1976 against the Raiders in the playoffs on a bogus Roughing the Passer call against Sugar Bear Hamilton. I only know about this because it was the standard comeback to any Raider fan who complained about the tuck rule.

I've seen this "terrible" roughing the passer call, and by today's standards, it was blatent. Hamilton probably would be fined on top of the penalty. Do Google searches about it, and it's on a few "Worst call ever" lists. If you get to the ref's wikipedia page, you'll see this was the most contreversial call he ever made. It was so bad, apparently the NFL wouldn't let him ref Patriot games anymore.

In light of this, I wonder where we'll be in 33 years. Will these hits on Brady look terrible to my children? If I show them a tape, will they be up screaming about what a dirty team the Ravens must have been?

Back from the Dead Monday, October 5, 2009

Sorry about not posting last week. There's nothing more devastating than losing to a team from Ohio. I didn't even think about football last week because it was too painful. (Luckily that only happens about once every three years.)

The Steelers were up 28-0 in the third quarter. I was getting ready to write about Mike Tomlin, and the enormous gap between he and guys like Norv Turner and Wade Philips. When the Steelers are about to fall apart and they lose to the Bengals, Tomlin gets angry, his players take on his attitude, and they come out and take care of business. When Mendenhall is blowing his assignments in practice, Tomlin benches him, he responds, starts the next week and runs for 166 yards and two touchdowns.

When times get tough, what do Norv Turner and Wade Philips do? Do they really have credibility with the players to fire them up? Or do they just sit in meetings looking a little bit groggier?

Tomlin's best asset as a coach is not his youth or skin color. It's that he does two things few coaches can do in tandem: he connects with the players personally but it couldn't be more clear who's in charge. Once someone asked Tomlin in a press conference how he thinks his players would evaluate his work so far. He said, "It's their job to perform. It's MY job to evaluate." Can you imagine Wade Philips saying such a thing? The press would laugh at him. (And yes, that's partly Jerry Jones' fault.)

The Chargers made it interesting, nonetheless. Phillip Rivers is a great quarterback. With a couple minutes to go it was suddenly 35-28. Why have the Steelers consistently outplayed the competition this year but had to endure comebacks and two losses? Here's my explanations, in order of their impact on the team this season:

--Opponents. The Steelers have played four good teams in the Titans, Bears, Bengals and Chargers. I picked all but the Titans to make the playoffs and that looks like a solid prediction right now. The Titans will be something like 7-9. Worst of all, though, we've faced three good quarterbacks in a row: Cutler was impossible to sack and made no bad decisions in Week 2, and both Palmer and Rivers exploded for points at the end of the game. Both will put up a lot of good numbers this year. Looking forward to Stafford and Anderson the next couple weeks.

--Polamalu's injury. We need him back. This really accounts for both the late defensive struggles and the lack of big plays (sacks and interceptions). Our defense has played disciplined but we need Polamalu to cause havoc.

--Back luck. Santonio's mistake led to a pick-six last week. Stefan Logan not getting a whistle for stopped forward progress on the punt return when five Chargers were literally holding the 5'6" returner up so that they could strip the ball. A couple bad spots on the turf in Chicago. The Steelers have just had bad luck. This is no big deal; they'll have a mix of bad luck and good luck in the future.

--Playcalling. Arians called a great game on offense tonight but he was a big reason we lost the previous two weeks.

As Collinsworth kept mentioning, Chris Kemoeatu was a beast last night. I'm now optimistic about Mendenhall, as he did break a lot of tackles (haven't seen Wille do that in about a year), but the credit really goes to the O-Line. Unfortunately, not all run defenses are as pathetic as San Diego's.

By the way, San Diego missing the playoffs would be very satisfying. However, I still don't think Denver can survive their schedule. We'll find out soon as the teams play in two weeks.

Big Ben played great. I agree with Collinsworth: He's now a solid #4 behind Manning, Brees and Brady. I'll put Rivers at #5. Maybe later this week I'll post full quaterback ratings.

Part 2: UMass tailgater "...our team sucks." Wednesday, September 30, 2009

As I said in the closing line of my last post on this topic, I will present a theory which was originated by another poster on umasshoops.com. The poster's screen name is ShadesOf96and98 and here's an edited version of what he wrote:

"Even the best FCS teams are '(crappy)' in the eyes of many, many people who like football.

Yes, we are an elite FCS program, but unless a day comes when we are FBS and playing

FBS schools in an FBS-sized stadium, our brand of football will always be '(crappy)' in the

eyes of many people whether we're winning football games or not. I dont agree with it, most of

the people on here dont agree with it, but it is what it is and always will be"

So I read this, and it made a lot of sense to me. Who cares about FCS? There could be readers who come for Joe's NFL analysis and skip my 1-AA posts. Frankly, I'd be surprised if that weren't the case. And while we're being frank, it's not just this one tailgater who feels this way. Although UMass is arguably the most successful college football program Northeast of Delaware (and I'll include Delaware just to piss off Bluehen fans), I'd be willing to bet a vast majority of Massachusetts residents as well as UMass students and alumni would read that quote and accept it as fact.

I was planning to expand this, but we all get it. Instead, I'll skip right onto my third point: where do we go from here?

So we're faced with three possible reactions to the tailgater's comment. We can acknowledge that the FCS sucks and so do the teams, or we could advocate for UMass to move up to FBS, or we could advocate for a change in public opinion about the FCS. As you can probably tell from my last post, acknowledging FCS sucks is not an option. That leaves us with moving up to FBS or changing our opinion.

What about going FBS?

I see one guarenteed benefit: I'd get to play as the Minutemen in NCAA 2012. When consuls got better (i.e., PS2 was replaced with PS3, Game Cube with Wi, and XBox with XBox 360), EA sports took out the 1AA/FCS teams. If you buy PS2 versions of the game still, I'm told the FCS teams are there. That makes sense, right? Better consul=less teams.

What are other possible benefits? Maybe, just maybe, we'd get to play BC every year. That would be admittedly cool. Right now when the two meet the cards are always stacked in BC's favor. They have more scholarships and are always home. With the playing field leveled I think UMass would take 1 of every 3 from the Eagles, and I'm most definately selling the Minutemen short with that prediction. Bigger basketball fans than I would probably want to play UConn every year too and might consider that a benefit. I personally am indifferent towards Huskies (the UConn ones...I despise the Northeastern ones) so this rivalry would do little for me, but we'll call it a benefit.

So, there are your benefits- video games, BC and UConn.

Now let's look at drawbacks. If I asked people to raise their hand if they remember the last time they heard "BC Eagles" and "National Champions" used in the same sentence with respect to college football, do you think I'd get a lot of hands? I'd guess no, cause they've never won any, or even played for any to my knowledge. It's true I might get a few hands as the facts don't stop the school from claiming it won a title in 1940. I've seen the pennant hanging in the concourse of Alumni Stadium with my own eyes. Here's their side of the story. The NCAA and everyone outside of Chestnut hill disagrees.

Now, raise your hand if you remember the last time "UMass Minutemen" and "National Champions" were used in the same sentence with respect to college football. For some strange reason (see 1998), more people will raise their hand. In fact, if you look at this site, UMass, while only winning 1 NCAA Division 1 Championship, has played in 3 Division 1 Championship games. Three more then my graduate alma mater, Boston College. You do have to hand it to BC though. Unlike UMass, they're undefeated in National Title games.

.

So, while I'm having fun at the expense of BC, let's get serious for a second. Is anyone stupid enough to think that if UMass made the jump, they'd do better than what BC has done? Anyone? Do we think the Minutemen would be in a BCS conference competing in the conference title game? How would we even get into a BCS conference? What ties to we have, aside from playing with in the same hockey conference as Providence and Boston College? Providence doesn't even play football, and I don't see the Eagles helping out UMass.

.

People seem to throw the MAC around as a possible conference to join, and others want the entire CAA to move up together. If we join the MAC, we lose all our rivals, and I enjoy hating Delaware and UNH. If we move up with the CAA, it automatically becomes the worst conference in FBS in the perception of everyone. And remember, BCS championship game participants aren't chosen based on what they do on the field. They're picked based on perception.

Regardless of which way UMass moved up, the best we could hope for is a really good team team that only loses a game or so a year but is ignored because of the conference affiliation, sort of a east version of Boise State. I can't even begin to imagine how frustrating that must be, never getting a shot to prove yourself on the field. I'd stop watching UMass football. Well, probably not, but still, I'd want to. I guess it wouldn't be all bad though. If we ever became the Boise State of the east, we could paint our field maroon. That would be awesome.

.

Even if we get into a BCS conference, the best we'd be able to do (again in my opinion) is what the Eagles have been able to. Is BC really in the position UMass wants to be in with respect to football? The Eagles are also runs every year. Sure, they're better than the non-BCS schools, but they're a joke when compared to the Pac10, Big10 and SEC schools. The way I see it, the Eagles have the same shot Harvard does every year at winning a title, and Harvard abstains from the playoffs on moral ground. Thinking about it this way, I can't really fault the Eagles for pretending they won a championship in 1940.

.

I don't believe in purgatory, but FBS seems like it's the closest thing to it.

.

That means we're left with one choice, and that's to accept who we are and embrace it. That's what I'm doing, and I invite all of Massachusetts to do the same. The next homegame is October 17th. It's homecoming against UNH. The game has HUGE playoff implications (when's the last time a BC fan could say that about homecoming?). If any UMass alum or Massachusetts residents read this, I hope you'll consider joining me at Warren P. McGuirk Alumni Stadium.

Post Game: Atlanta vs New England Sunday, September 27, 2009

The Patriots defeated the Falcons today, 26-10. For the first time this year, I think Brady was off. He overthrew a ton of passes. I guess he also exploded on the sidelines and started screaming at everyone, all the receivers and Belichick. As it was Tom Brady who did it, I like it. It shows he cares and wants to execute every play, and won't settle for less than his best. If Peyton Manning ever did it, of course I'd be ripping him. That's just how I role. And let me point out, I'd be right to rip Manning if he exploded like Brady did today, just like I'm right to like Brady for doing it.

The defense continues to play well in my opinion, and continues to get ripped. Everyone was complaining about them in the stands and on the call in shows on the ride home. They've only allowed and average of 14 points a game! What does this region expect?

I never save ticket stubs to anything, except Patriots games. My uncle is a season ticket holder and he takes me to a game a year. The seasons tickets look like football card, so ever since I was little, I've kept each game. I have Bruce Armstrong (flipping through, I have a LOT of Bruce Armstrong...like 4 games). A Dolphin game I went to once has Willie McGinnest hitting Dan Marino. Drew Bledsoe and Steve Grogan share the photo of the game Bledsoe got hurt at and Brady came in relief. There's all sorts of Patriots greats, current and former. As the seasons tickets are printed before the year starts, sometimes the person on them is comical. I have Matt Bahr for an exhibition game ticket, and he was cut the day before the game for Adam Vinatieri. I also have Lawyer Milloy and Bill Belichick talking together on the sidelines for a game against the Giants in which Milloy was in Buffalo.

My favorite ticket stub is from October 10, 2004 against the Miami Dolphins. It has Eugine Wilson and Tyrone Poole breaking up a pass against some Brown whose number I can't make out. Gillette Stadium's red wall is in the background, and in real life it has nothing on it. On the ticket, cleverly spaced, they put the following in small letters:
SEC 19 (then a ref's head) IN A (then the Brown's player defended by Wilson and Poole) ROW

The significance of course is this is the ticket stub for their 19th win in a row, breaking the Dolphins record. I tried scanning it to put it up on the blog, but the format wasn't right. This was week 5, and the tickets are printed out and sent before the exhibition season starts. I like how they called their shot before the season. They predicted they'd win 19 in a row.

There is a reason I'm going off in a tangent about my ticket stubs. Because I have them all, I know the all time record the Patriots have in games I've been to. They beat the original Browns in the home opener in 1995 in my first game, then the Eagles in preseason of 1996, then the Cardinals in the home opener of 1996 and then the Chargers in the home opener in 1997. I was sitting pretty at 4-0. 3-0 if you don't count preseason.

That brings us to 1998. I had my pick of which game I wanted to go to that year. I could go to the Cheifs or the Falcons. I picked the Falcons cause I thought the Cheifs would be good and I had fun rubbing it in everyone's face that the Patriots were undefeated in games I went to. Not only that, I think I was the only one with a winning record. At the time, I was the youngest going to games. As a result, everyone else had seen some terrible Patriots teams play.

My cousin Danny, who never saw the Patriots win before, went to the Cheifs game that year. New England killed them, 40-10. The Falcons game was almost the exact opposite. Atlanta won on a freezing cold day in November, 41-10. It was so bad, the person sitting next to my uncle told me I must be bad luck and I wasn't allowed to come back.

11 years later, that loss is avenged. Take that Atlanta!

Overall, I've been pretty lucky. The Patriots are 10-6 in the regular season, 1-0 in the post season and 4-1 in preseason games I've been too.

Post Game: Stony Brook vs Massachusetts Saturday, September 26, 2009

UMass came out and dominated the first drive, as expected by yours truly. The first play from scrimmage was a 40 yard bomb from Havens to Jeremy Horne. Fullback Chris Zardas ran for a score three plays later to give the Minutemen an early 7-0 lead. For whatever reason, Stony Brook didn't lay down and die. They put together a nice seven play drive to tie the score at 7. After a Havens interception, Stony Brook kicked a field goal to take a 10-7 lead. After this, it was pretty much all UMass. They scored the next two touchdowns to make it 21-10. Stony Brook scored a touchdown two minutes before half time and their idiot receiver who caught the ball got into the face of the UMass defensive back and started screaming at him. The ref threw a flagged him and it gave UMass great field position, and they were able to get a field goal before the half to make it 24-17. The second half was all UMass, and the final was 44-17, so my prediction was off by 10 points. Not too shabby.

All the while, starting running back Tony Nelson didn't make an appearance. He was dressed and I watched him walking around and talking to people, but he never went in. His replacement, John Hernandez made the most of his opportunity, rushing for 3 touchdowns, including a 36 yarder, and 140 yards. I wasn't sure if he was hurt or suspended. My cousin who went with me suggested that maybe Hernandez had a better week of practice and was named starter. He was walking around ok and didn't seem hurt, and he was dressed so he didn't seem suspended. When I came home, I checked it and it turns out he had a shoulder injury. I wouldn't sleep all that well if I were Nelson tonight. He may have just lost his job.

The Stony Brook coach didn't impress me. First, when down 21-10, Stony Brook faced 4th-8 on the UMass 28. The wind was against them, so rather then attempt a 45 yard field goal, he sent the punt team on. Wait... 4th-8 from the opponents 28, and you're punting?!?!? What are you hoping to gain? 20 yards of field position? Is gaining that worth giving up an opportunity to score? Of course, the punter kicked it right into the endzone and Stony Brook gained a grand total of 8 yards of field position.

Then, when UMass was about to kick the field goal right before half, there were 40 seconds left and the clock was running. Of course UMass let time nearly expire before kicking it. Stony Brook had a time out and for some reason chose not to use it. 40 seconds is plenty of time to return the kick and run a few plays. He was just content to go to the lockerroom down by 7. If I were a Stony Brook fan, the coaching would have infuriated me today. Thankfully I'm not a Stony Brook fan.

Unfortunately, Kyle didn't have a great game this week, going 12-24 with 2 interceptions and no touchdowns. Unfortunately, there were a few bombs brought back as a result of penalties and there was a 60 yard beauty that would have been a touchdown if not for a fabulous defensive play by Stony Brook. As a result, he wasn't one of the three players selected for the postgame press conference. Therefore, I do not have anything for the new segment, Kyle's Confident Quote of the Week. If it's any consilation, the gate to get into my seats is near the UMass Lockerroom and while waiting to get in I saw Kyle standing outside alone, looking quite confident. Havens is quickly moving up my list of favorite UMass Athletes.

Game Day: Stony Brook @ Massachusetts

I started writing my second post about the quote, but I'll postpone it for a while as I'm going to Amherst today for the game, Stony Brook @ 15 UMass and Foxboro tomorrow to see Matty Heisman (HA!) vs the New England Patriots.

I don't know much about Stony Brook, other than the fact there one of the SUNYs. They just moved to the Big South Conference a few years ago from the Northeast Conference. Without even knowing the teams in either conference, I'd guess Stony Brook just added a lot to their travel expenses. So why? At first I guessed it would have to do with playoff eligibility. Though neither conference currently has an autobid, the Big South will next year. However, looking it up on Wikipedia, it appears both conferences will have one next year. That's why you shouldn't speculate kids.

Reading their press release from when the move was announced, it appears both the school and the conference thought it was the right move as both were up and coming and heading for success. Stony Brook also claims playing down south more will help with recruiting, which I suppose is true.

At any rate, NEC, Big South, SUNY Stony Brook or SUNY Albany. It's all the same, and the same is inferior to the Minutemen. UMass wins this one big. I'm going with 44-7, which was the final score of the Albany game.

Around The CAA
Here are other CAA games this weekend and my predictions:
Rhode Island @ UConn- I'm pulling for the Rams, but the Cons will destroy URI. It has nothing to do with how good UConn is. URI is that bad, I'd always pick who they were playing against to win.

Dartmouth @ UNH- UNH will win and make the Ivies realize the superiority of the CAA.
I'm actually rooting for Dartmouth though, as I dislike UNH and I have a friend who went to Dartmouth.

VMI @ Richmond- The Champs will beat Virginia Military Institution (I had to look it up), making the CAA 2-0 against the Big South this weekend.

Northeastern @ Villanova- Villanova wins this conference game. See Rhode Island-UConn commentary...except I'm not rooting for the Huskies.

Hofstra @ Western Michigan- Come on Hofstra! We need this to stay .500 against FBS after URI gets destroyed.

William & Mary @ Delaware*- Another conference match up. This is the game most likely to be an upset (Delaware winning). If it were any other team coming off a year like Delaware just had, I'd pick W&M without thinking twice. Or, if William and Mary were home, I'd go with them, but Tubby Raymond is a tough place to play... screw it. I'm going with William & Mary just to piss off Delaware fans.

*Edit- This game is actually at William and Mary. For some reason, the CAA webpage lists the home team first. How foolish is that? I'm still going with William & Mary, and still keeping the analysis I gave above, again just to piss off Delaware fans.