Spring Practice

Well here we are in March again, and its time for spring football across the country.  It seems like just the other day I was driving out to California to see Alabama win the National Championship!  Yet here we are in the middle of March with spring practice going on at every NCAA Football college in the country.  Let's take a look at the top three storylines this year's spring:

3.  Can USC find its way back to the top?

2009 wasn't the best year for USC football to say the least.  An 8-4 record was the worst regular season in recent memory for the Trojans.  But a bowl win over Boston College began to right the ship heading into 2010.  The season was also marred by a near tragedy when Stafon Johnson nearly lost his life in a weightlifting accident.  His nearly full recovery is nothing short of miraculous. 

Key Losses:
Taylor Mays
Stafon Johnson
Allen Bradford
Shareece Wright

Key Additions:
Kyle Prater - 5* Receiver
Any number of the 4 five stars and numerous 4* players that USC brings in every season could turn out to be major impact freshmen.  But Prater will likely be called upon early and often.  Look for some new faces in the secondary as well

This spring is where USC will find out what it made of.  No one on this team has had to come off of adversity the season before.  With major losses in the backfield and secondary, this spring may be key for USC.  Can Joe McKnight be an every down back?  Or is he too much like Reggie Bush:  electric but not a true running back?  Can Matt Barkely live up to the hype?  We will see.

A 2010 schedule with no world beaters on it sets up well for USC this year.  Figure them back into the National Title picture at year's end.

2.  How will Alabama handle success?

Selfishly I wanted to put this as the top storyline going in, but nationally it really isn't the most important off season topic.  But for Alabama fans, this is the big one.  Several great seasons followed Alabama's last national championship, what will happen after this one?  Alabama returns the majority of their offensive skill position players with stars at all levels.  The offensive line will again be a question mark with anchor Mike Johnson gone, but the Alabama offense will be largely back from last year.  The true question becomes defense.  Alabama loses key players on all levels of the defense.  Marcel Dareus will be back on the defensive line, however he wasn't technically even the starter.  The Crimson Tide lose nearly all starting linebackers; the most important of which being Rolando McClain.  Some young guys stepped in when needed last year, and superstar in the making Donta Hightower should be back healthy and as good as ever.
The secondary will be the real question mark however.  8 of the top 10 in playing time have either graduated or gone onto the NFL early.  Starting Safety Mark Barron and nickel back Robby Green are all that return from one of the top secondaries in the nation last season.  Can B.J. Scott finally live up to the hype of being a 5 star in high school?  Will Dre Kirkpatrick become the lockdown corner he was touted to be out of high school?  DeMarcus Millner is another big name player, will he see major action as a true freshman?

But Coach Saban is the defensive backs coach, so that will help.

Combine all of this with the fact that with this season being the crazy road season with games @Tennessee, @ LSU, @Arkansas.  Add in home games against Penn State, Florida, and Auburn, and its tough to see Alabama going through that gauntlet undefeated.  But if they do, and if Florida makes it to the title game again...maybe Alabama can get past the Gators because of storyline number 1:

1.  How do the top teams replace their star quarterbacks (Oklahoma, Texas, Florida)?

Going into last season all the talk was the Heisman trophy and which of the big three senior quarterbacks would win it.  Then it was a relatively unknown running back out of Alabama capturing the first ever Heisman for the school.  So how will OU, UT, and UF replace their leaders?

Well OU pretty much already had to when Bradford went own to injury at the start of the season.  The answer was Landry Jones, and the results were mixed.  Jones passed for over 3,000 yards and 26 touchdowns, but also lost some of the biggest games of the year to Miami, Texas, Texas Tech, and Oklahoma.  With basically a full year under his belt that Jones was not ready for given the circustances, he will be in a much better position this time around.

Texas also got an early glimpse at their next gunslinger in Garrett Gilbert.  It came at the worst possible time with McCoy going down early in the national title game, but Gilbert preformed remarkably well given the situation.  A couple of touchdown passes to Jordan Shipley later, and Gilbert looks ready at Texas.  His stats in the game were unimpressive overall : 15/40 186 yards 2 TD 4INT but he improved as the game went on and began to develop confidence against the top defense in the nation.  Texas could easily find itself back in the national title picture again this season.

Florida is probably the biggest question mark of the group.  Replacing Jesus Ch........i mean Tim Tebow.....at quarterback will be tough.  Love him or hate him; sick of him or not, Tebow meant alot to that Florida team on the field and off the field.  He was the heart of that team.  The offense was built around him.  I'm as sick of him as anyone else and believe me, I laughed when I saw him crying at the end of the Alabama game, but that guy gave everything he had to the game of college football and even if he is a failure at quarterback at the next level, which I predict he will be, you can't take away what he did at Florida.  His replacement is likely John Brantley.  Brantley played very well in the little bit he played over Tebow last season.  Playing in mostly mop up duty in big wins, Brantley was 36 of 48 for 410 yards with 7 TDs and 0 INTs.  He just doesn't have the same skill set running the ball Tebow did.  His threat to run the ball outside or run it inside made that offense as tough to gameplan for as any in college football.

Can the Gators get back to the top without Tebow?  If they do they will have to probably beat Alabama or LSU twice this season since they play both in the regular season and its likely one of those two will make it to Atlanta for the title game again.

Its going to be a great season.  But before we start thinking about it too much, lets get through the spring games first....

Great Website!

Came across http://upnextinsports.com/ last night while searching for funny websites.  Found some great college FB pics on there:

Week 4 Recap

Here is a quick rundown of last week's top ten teams

1.  Florida W vs. Kentucky 41-7

One Word:  Domination.  495 yards vs. 179.  Florida jumped out to a 31-0 first quarter lead.  That's something I have a hard time doing in the NCAA 2010 football video games even when I use Florida!  The this game won't be remembered for the domination, it will be remembered for The Tebow Hit.  Late in the 3rd quarter, Tebow was sacked by Kentucky's Taylor Wyndham and had to be taken to the hospital where he remained overnight for observations.  Of course, Tebow also came into the game with the flu so it really was a bad week for him.  But with a bye week coming up, he should be, and by extension the Gators, should be fine before the LSU game.

2.  Texas W vs. UTEP 64-7

One word:  Domination.  After a couple weeks in a row of sluggish first half play, the Longhorns put a complete game together with this victory.  639 yards vs. just 53.  UTEP's only score of the day came on a 49 yard interception return.  The Horns only gave up 9 yards on the ground  McCoy a relatively pedestrian 28/35 286 yards 3 TD 1 INT.  Vondrell McGee had over 100 on the ground, and Jordan "Ghost" Shipley added 122 through the air.  Next up for Texas after a bye week is a date with Colorado before the all important Red River Rivalry vs. Oklahoma.

3.  Alabama W vs. Arkansas 35-7

Already had a full post on this game, but to review:  offense looked average other than the big plays, defense looked AMAZING, special teams better but need to keep the penalties down, especially on long kick and punt returns.  The kick coverage team has been better however which is Alabama's only real weakness to this point.  McElroy is a standout and might be the best QB in the SEC this year (and yes that includes Tebow) and Richardson is a budding superstar in the NCAA.  The only thing that will keep Richardson from a future Heisman trophy will be Mark Ingram.  But that is how Alabama has always done it, and it shouldn't ever change.  We are bigger than personal awards, its all about the team.  Next up for Alabama is a road trip Kentucky before what looked like a bigger match up last week:  a road trip to Oxford to play Ole Miss.  Make no mistake however, both games will be tough tests for the Tide. 

4.  Ole Miss L vs. South Carolina 10-16

Welcome back to earth Ole Miss.  It happens very often that a team with lofty preseason projections falls flat on their face in a game where they should win.  Usually, that happens to a team that is not used to those types of predictions (or USC).  And Thursday ESPN games tend to claim a lot of victims.  Ole Miss didn't look good in the game, but they are still a great SEC West team.  The October 10th home game vs. Alabama will show where Ole Miss really is in that division. 

5.  Penn State L vs. Iowa10-21

Almost half of SportsNation picked this as the top ten upset game of the week, and they were right.  Iowa came into the game having won 6-of-7 against Penn State, and now we can make it 7-of-8.  More importantly however, this loss pretty much takes Penn State out of the BCS title picture.  For a one loss Big 10 team to make it in, all the teams in the SEC and Big 12, and even USC, will have to end up with two losses.  That's not likely to happen.  Penn State jumped out to an early lead with a 79 yard pass from DAryll Clark to Chaz Powell the first time PSU touched the ball.  A field goal brought the lead up to 10-0 and it looked like Penn State was gonna roll.  But a safety and field goal by Iowa in the first half brought it back to a game.  But it was 16 4th quarter points by the Hawkeyes , led by a blocked punt for a touchdown, that put the game out of reach.  Even with the BCS title nearly out of reach, the Rose Bowl that comes with a Big 10 title is not.  Ohio State looked very good, and Michigan is clearly back, so it looks to be a very fun three way fight for the Big 10 title this year.  State has what should be a cakewalk road game against Illinois this weekend before a pair of tuneups vs. Eastern Illinois and Minnesota (which may be a relatively difficult game) before a big match up at the Big House vs Michigan. 

6.  Cal L vs. Oregon 3-42
 Cal, WTF?!?!?!?!  This was easily the biggest egg-laying performance of the weekend.  524 yards vs. 207.  Jahvid Best WAS the best running back in the nation and a possible Heisman front-runner, but only 55 yards on 16 carries is not going to get it down.  All Cal has to do is have an efficient performance by QB Kevin Riley to win games, but 12/31 for 123 is not the way to do it.  Duck QB Jeremiah Masoli finally rememberd how to play quarterback oing 21/25 for 253 and 3 touchdowns, his first on the season.  Cal opened the game well with a field goal in the first minute of the game...but after that.....yikes.  42 unanswered points for the Ducks destroyed the Bears.  It doesn't get much easier for Cal at this point however with a date with USC on the schedule this weekend.  Its ok Cal, at least you don't have to wear uniforms that look like that!

7.  LSU W vs. Mississippi State 30-26

Can't say much that went well for LSU in this one other than at least they got the win.   The Bulldogs bested LSU in first downs (21-12), and in total yards (374-263) but it really was turnovers that killed the Dawgs in this one.  Tyson Lee was just 15/38 for only 172 yards with 1 TD, but most importantly 3 costly turnovers.  A Patrick Peterson interception return for TD got the scoring kicked off for LSU, but MSU stormed right back with an Anthony Dixon TD run.  The teams traded touchdowns again in the first quarter before LSU scored on a 2nd quarter field goal.  State ahd the chance to take the lead at the end of the half with a chip shot field goal, but they elected to go for a touchdown, and it failed.  Down just two points early in the 4th, it looked like State might have a chance but a 93 yard punt return by Chad Jones put LSU in control.  MSU stomed back with a field goal to bring it to within 6, but an amazing goal line stand by LSU with 1 minute remaining the in the game ended all hope.  LSU took a purposeful safety with 51 seconds left, but State could not get the ball down the field and the Tigers survived.  It doesn't get any easier for the Tigers from here however with back to back games against the SEC East best Georgia Bulldogs and Florida Gators.

8.  Boise State W vs. Bowling Green 49-14

I hate to say it, but Boise State is legit again this year.  They have a quality win vs. Oregon - a team that just DEMOLISHED a supposedly great Cal team - and dominating performances against Miami (OH), Fresno State, and Bowling Green.  I don't know what to say about this team that hasn't already been said.  QB Kellen Moore is so smart and just athletic enough to be dangerous.  Moore went 17/21 for 247 and 2 TDs.  Running back Doug Martin had 100 on the ground too.  I'm sure I will say this every week, but there doesn't seem to be a way this team can lose in the regular season.  And if they win out, they will be in the BCS picture.

9.  Miami L vs. Virginia Tech 7-31

Miami must have started to believe their own hype going into this game.  All the media, including me, were saying how great this team is and that they were going to win the ACC.  Oops, we forgot about Virginia Tech.  After a loss to Alabama and a near loss to Nebraska, everyone seemed to forget about the Hokies.  Well, not anymore.  The Hokies still have plenty of issues in the passing game with Tyrod Taylor going just 4/9, but he wasn't needed very much.  Ryan Williams added 150 and 2 scores on the ground - Taylor had 75 of his own, and the defense help Miami to just 209 yards.  Jacory Harris, a possible Heisman candidate went just 9/25 for 150, Zero TDs and an INT.  If not for Cal, this would have been the WTF game of the game of the day.  But its not all bad for Miami.  Everyone pegged the Hurricanes 2-2 after their start of the season as what they needed to be on the way back, and they have already guaranteed that.  The bad news?  Game four is next weekend against Oklahoma with Sam Bradford possibly back in the lineup.  After the OU game it does get easier however with Florida A&M and UCF.  Clemson should be very winnable, as should Wake Forest, and Virginia is just terrible.  @ North Carolina will be tough, Duke will not be, and South Florida is a huge question mark.  Worst case for the Hurricanes:  7-5 and a bowl game.  Best case - 10-2 and possible at large BCS game.  All is not lost in Coral Gables.

10.  Oklahoma BYE

Oklahoma avoided the upset bug by simply being off for the weekend.  Next up is a date with the Hurricanes (and the potential return of Sam Bradford) before a tuneup against Baylor, and the big showdown with the Longhorns in Dallas on October 17th

Top ten will look VERY different for next weekend's Recap.  Check back all week for updates and PLEASE LEAVE COMMENTS