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STOCK MARKET, WEEK THREE
Mike
STOCK DOWN: Internet connectivity inside Williams-Brice Stadium. Apologies to those of you expecting posts and tweets from the game. I had it all planned out, honest. Plenty of plans, but no bars. My sightline wasn’t quite as good as Adam’s, anyway.
STOCK UP: Most other things about the place. South Carolina puts on a good show. The southern phenomenon of girls dressing up to go to football games is one of the very few things that make me question my own choice in colleges.
STOCK UP: Army. I didn’t think they could beat Northwestern. I was wrong. This wasn’t a fluke, either. Army dominated possession, 40:19-19:41, while rushing for 381 yards. This is the biggest win of Rich Ellerson’s short tenure, and the biggest win of any service academy so far this year. An 0-3 start would have been tough to recover from. At 1-2, with a win over a pretty good Big Ten team under their belt, the rest of the season looks a lot better.
STOCK DOWN: WKU. Dude.
STOCK UP: Georgia Tech. Dude.
(If you had to guess how Kansas lined up on defense, what would you think? Here’s a hint).
STOCK UP: Notre Dame. You didn’t think they were going to turn the ball over in every game the way they did in their first two, did you?
STOCK MARKET CRASH: The Big East. The conference might be able to survive in name if it can pick up what remains of the Big 12, but it won’t survive in spirit without Pitt and Syracuse. The days of the Eastern Independent were already long gone, but the Big East preserved our legacy as best it could. Now, as the game continues to evolve, what were once inter-sectional matchups are becoming conference games. The tradition of Eastern college football is officially dead.
STOCK DOWN: Thinking this means that the ACC is now immune from being pillaged by the Big Ten or SEC. It doesn’t.
STOCK UP: FIU. With all the big games in Florida over the weekend, Florida International’s 17-10 win over defending Conference-USA champion UCF should not be overlooked. The Panthers are 3-0 and have a real shot at going undefeated, with a home game against Duke probably being the toughest test they have left. Bonus points for beating George O’Leary, because I hate George O’Leary.
Adam
STOCK UP: Duke’s future bowl hopes. Well, the ACC is at it again. You can talk all you want about how great a basketball conference it’s going to be, but when you look at the football side of things, there’s just no getting around how the most underachieving AQ conference just added two shining examples of underachieving football programs in Pittsburgh and Syracuse. Heck, they’re only the addition of Connecticut and Rutgers away from giving Duke all the conference wins it needs for bowl eligibility.
STOCK DOWN: Karl Benson’s Master Plan. I’ve yet to find an administrator in college athletics who seems as genuine and as good of a guy as Karl, but even I’m starting to lose faith in his plan for the WAC. We keep hearing that the conference is going to target schools with football in their futures, but with the latest additions of Dallas Baptist and Cal State-Bakersfield being made for baseball, is it time to concede that the WAC’s football programs are doomed to sink below Sun Belt status? What’s next? Targeting competitive golf programs?
STOCK UP: Zaxby’s. I found many things overrated on my trip to cover Navy play South Carolina. The football IQ of SEC beat writers left a lot to be desired, as did the apparent scrambling ability of Stephen Garcia. But one thing which was not overrated is the southeast-based fast casual concept. Get you some chicken fingerz and crinkle fries, son.
STOCK DOWN: Western Kentucky. Really, losing to Indiana State? And getting blown out too? Sometimes, I think an actual Sycamore tree might put up more of a fight than the perennial FCS bottom feeder.
STOCK UP: The other McCoy boy. Just in case you didn’t get the memo, they apparently cloned Colt and named the slightly younger version of him Case. Not only did he hit two touchdown passes in Texas’ win at UCLA, he also managed to NOT screw up, something his predecessor, Garret Gilbert, tended to struggle with. With the Red River Rivalry looming in a few weeks and an undefeated Iowa State team on the docket for Saturday, he’s got his work cut out for him.
STOCK DOWN: Luke Kuechly’s long-term health. 25 straight games with double-digit tackles. That cannot be healthy.
Postgame Haiku, Vol. 47
Navy football team
Too good for moral vic’try
Though still I am proud
GAME WEEK: SOUTH CAROLINA
Which is better? College football or the NFL?
It’s the never-ending fan debate. Sure, they’re both football, but they’re different in so many ways. Each of them has their own distinct cultures built around them that tend to appeal to different crowds; if you like football for its social elements, then you’ll lean toward whichever fan experience suits you. For those more interested in the game itself, your preference is most likely decided by asking another question: do you watch football for the players, or for the coaches? For the athletes, or for the Xs and Os?
If you answer with the former, then you probably like the NFL more than the college game. The pros are, well, pros. They’re bigger. They’re faster. They throw farther and they jump higher. They’re the best athletes in the world making the most amazing plays, and they do it with greater precision and fewer mistakes. The quality of play on the field is simply at a higher level.
If your interest in football lies primarily in the coaching– the strategy, the personalities, and the evolution of the game– then you probably lean towards college football. If you’ve read this blog for any length of time, you have no doubt figured that this is the camp that I fall into.
NAVY 40, WKU 14
A quick glance at the statistics from Navy’s 40-14 frogstomping of WKU on Saturday, and it’s hard not to be impressed. 510 yards of offense, including 410 on the ground. Two passing TDs. A 21-14 edge in first downs. The numbers say that the game was a blowout, and it was. It seems a little ridiculous, then, not to join with the chorus of headlines praising the Mids for their offensive production so far.
I just can’t do it yet.
Q&A WITH GARNET AND BLACK ATTACK
In the spirit of blogger outreach, and in an effort to gain a different perspective, I exchanged a Q&A with Garnet & Black Attack, the South Carolina entry in the SBNation blogging continuum. You can read my answers here.
It’s been a long time coming, but South Carolina finally broke through and won the SEC East title for the first time last year. With so many great players returning, what does that mean for 2011? Is this finally the year for an SEC title?
The feeling is definitely that this is the most talented team that USC has ever had and that we have a fairly clear road back to Atlanta if we play to the best of our ability. Granted, once we get to Atlanta, we’ll likely have to take on either Alabama or LSU, both of which appeared to be better teams than USC heading into the season. However, if you get there, you have a chance, and we proved that on good days we can beat teams like that when we beat Alabama last year.
It has to be noted, though, that USC’s slightly shaky start has exposed some chinks in the armor. USC needs to shore up its secondary and passing game if it wants to compete at the highest level this year. The strengths we expected to see are all here: great running game led by Marcus Lattimore, great pass rush and fairly solid run defense led by a stout defensive front, and great receiver in Alshon Jeffery. However, the expected weaknesses at secondary, QB, and secondary receivers have been more glaring than expected, and that has some USC fans a bit worried.
APOLOGIES…
I apologize for being late on the WKU breakdown. It’s pretty much done, but the Youtube server has uploaded one video and is rejecting the rest. I’ll get the post up as soon as I can.
UPDATE: It appears to be a Youtube-wide issue. Hang tight.
No more than a teaspoon of the wishbone, please
My grandmother died a couple weeks ago. She was one of my best friends; I don’t think I’ve ever met anyone as generous and loving as she, and I don’t think I ever will. In going through some of her papers, I found an old recipe that called for, among other things, a not-insignificant measure of MSG. The siblings and I had a laugh; how times have changed!
Something else has harkened back to bygone times in the past couple weeks: Army’s use of the wishbone formation. Continue reading “No more than a teaspoon of the wishbone, please”
Navy: Nike Pro Combat System of Dress
Navy: Nike Pro Combat System of Dress.
THESE ARE AWESOME
Update: MORE
I know that one day this uniform and I are gonna get married on top of a mountain, and there’s going to be flutes playing and trombones and flowers and garlands of fresh herbs. And we will dance till the sun rises. And then our children will form a football team. And we will go to the Orange Bowl and you won’t be invited.
The Birddog 