THURSDAY THROWDOWN: 10/23/08

Scoops McCracken: Penn State-Ohio State. Can PSU exercise the demons of the Horseshoe?
Peoria Pliers: I really want to say that they will, and I think they have looked AMAZING so far this year with their disciplined play and creative offense....but they have to lose one game before the end of the season, right? I mean that's a horrible reason to pick against them, but I think this very well may be game they lose since the Horsehoe is a as formidable a place as Sex Panther is a scent
Scoops McCracken: Ohio State completely boggles my mind. They look amateurish against Wisconsin & Purdue, but then absolutely gang rape Michigan State. They do the complete opposite of what I think they're going to do, minus the Minnesota game.
Peoria Pliers: So you're going with them to win then?
Scoops McCracken: I am, yes....but I wouldn't bring the deed to the farm with to the casino.
Peoria Pliers: true that. So do your knees hurt as bad as mine for jumping onto the Daryl Clark bandwagon?
Scoops McCracken: I've kind of liked him all year.....one benefit of the Big Ten network: getting to watch all the preseason camps. I liked PSU then....and remember, I did pick them to go to the Rose Bowl before the season.
Peoria Pliers: Oooooo, you sound like Beano Cook
Scoops McCracken: If I was Beano Cook, I'd be talking about the potential of a Notre Dame-Pittsburgh Orange Bowl as being the greatest BCS game ever.
Peoria Pliers: good point
Scoops McCracken: But what I would like is Bama to lose and PSU & Texas to run the table and end up playing in the title game.
Peoria Pliers: That would be AWESOME, I'd love to see that matchup, although I would have preferred Oklahoma or Mizzou instead of Tejas
Scoops McCracken: Perhaps, but I don't mind this Texas team. I have a soft spot for Mack Brown, and I'd much rather see Texas than Florida or Bama or some other SEC academic institution.
Peoria Pliers: In the heirarchy of coaching snakes, Mack Brown definately is lower on the totem pole than Urban Meyer
Scoops McCracken: I think Mack Brown knows what he's got and where he's at....and he doesn't need to be a snake oil salesman like Meyer or Saban. But I'm loving this season.....the Gophers are playing ok and Wisconsin is shitting the bed....I couldn't ask for much more. Speaking of which, big series down in Madtown this weekend for the hockey club. I know it's a football thing, but hockey gets the old gears cranking! Sioux suck, blog readers!
Peoria Pliers: Yeah I scored tickets to the Wild game tonight so I get to watch Vanek light it up like the olden days, which is sweet. Gotta love hockey season, no dobut. And yes, the Sioux do suck. Badly.
Scoops McCracken: Were you able to watch the Gophers against SCSU last weekend?
Peoria Pliers: I watched the first two periods of the game on Friday...they looked fast and small
Scoops McCracken: I don't want to get too off the football tangent here, but I think they do have a mix of decent size. I think they have crazy depth; depth we haven't seen since 2002 & 2003 where the 4th line dominates every shift. Hopefully that top flight go to guy can emerge though, like Pohl or Vanek back in those days. I'm surprised you didn't go after Texas Tech being a point underdog agaisnt Kansas this weekend.
Peoria Pliers: I'm done with Mike Leach and his Air Raid bull-honkey. His defense is like an air-leak, and they just don't have the consistency they need. I'm surprised you didn't make six MAC predicitons
Scoops McCracken: I usually make two invovling Bowling Green & Northern Illinois, but they're playing each other this weekend, hence just one pick. I did nail Toledo being given too much respect though.
Peoria Pliers: Totally agree with the Toledo pick, beating Michigan this year is like the Gophers sweep of St. Cloud over the weekend...be happy with it, but don't get too excited. So what did you make of the Tommy Bowden situation at Clemson and then resulting media circus created by Spiller and Harper? Their media strategy is as cohesive as a cluster bomb dropped from 95,000 feet....
Scoops McCracken: It's hard......I think Bowden read the writing on the wall and knew he was a gonner, so he wanted to get a jump start. But I'm not much for a coach quitting midseason on kids that they preach to all year long on never quitting. Lesson as always: Clemson is irrelevant.
Peoria Pliers: yeah you called it at the beginning of the year. I tried to go with that whole "they have so much talent" argument, but alas, I was wrong again. We nee to come up with a name for coaches like Tommy Bowden, Lloyd Carr, and Ron Zook whose teams constantly underachieve despite high levels of talent, something snazzy
Scoops McCracken: I don't know if I have a name for it, but I dubbed a few terms when our high school reunions came up. It was if a girl was a "Ryan Leaf" or a "Tom Brady." Ryan Leaf: the knockout girl in high school that is now way over the hill, a total slut, and her best days are past. Tom Brady: the under the radar girl that 10 years later is now a complete knockout.
Peoria Pliers: Yeah, we need something similar for these mediocre coaches. Something like the "Michael Brown" (FEMA guy) trophy, or something
Scoops McCracken: You remember Al Goins from the frat days? That could be for the guy that is brilliant at something, but too stupid to be successful because of their ego. Or Stephen Schuller?
Peoria Pliers: Al and Shuler were definately in that book, although illicit drugs played their part as well. How about the "Pat Sajak" award, or maybe the "Tim Matheson" award for biggest underacheiver in college football. Other classic underacheivers might be The Dude from the Big Lebowski, Michael Olowakandi, or Reggie Ball from Ga Tech a few years back.
Scoops McCracken: Or highly recruited guys that really weren't that good. Justin Zwick....Lorenzo Booker....
Peoria Pliers: I like it. I will submit the names to the Trophy committee and get back to you asap
Scoops McCracken: I think me & you should try to take over a football team at like South or Edison or something like that.
Peoria Pliers: I've been pushing that agenda with Marc for a few years now
Scoops McCracken: Run veer for a few years to get things under control, and then BLAMO.......spreadHD
Peoria Pliers: Spread HD huh. With a bunch of kids from Edison? I like it
Scoops McCracken: I still have the playbook I developed for the K-Sig football program "the West Bank" offense since I came up with it sitting in boring Sociology classes in Blegen Hall
Peoria Pliers: The West Bank offense is always a plus, unless you run into the Jihadist 4-6...then you are SCREWED
Peoria Pliers: So are you going to watch the Auburn/West Virignia pillowfight tonigth>?
Scoops McCracken: Yeah, I'll probably flip between that and the world series. Auburn's fun to watch defensively, and Pat White is still Pat White. Not as intriguing as if you would had told me about these two teams back in August, but I'll watch. How does Auburn fire an o-coordinator halfway through a year? Did Tuberville not think that there would be a rough patch?
Peoria Pliers: Here is what I think...the SEC has gone so far away from the "Glen Mason" theory of building a college football team that they are putting EVERY good athlete on Defense, so the games end up being these epic struggles of fast kids on Defense against slightly slower kids on offense...its like watching an NHL game...you just sit around for three hours waiting for the three mistakes that kill one team. And help the other. Tubberville is grasping at straws since his teams have been on the back end of those really close games, and who better to get rid of if you are trying to keep the boosters off of your back...send a message that things are changing, and fire you O-Coordinator. Seems like typical D-1 football B.S. to me
Scoops McCracken: I hear ya, but I think they're fools. 1 year? You have to expect when you're completely switching philosophies that you're going to struggle. Michigan is pretty much expected for me. I thought they'd have 1 or 2 more wins because of the athletes they could plug in, but it's expected.
Peoria Pliers: Oh yeah, they are total fools, do doubt. I'm just trying to say that it isn't a huge surprise. I often wonder how different things would be in Auburn had Tubberville and the Tigers not gotten JOBBED by the BCS a few years ago and he was able to bring home the Natl Championship
Scoops McCracken: I don't know if things would be different. You'd still have the Les Miles, Nick Saban & Urban Meyer's to deal with. Look at Tennessee. Not much has super changed for them since 1998.
Peoria Pliers: Agreed........but who is still coaching there???? Uncle Fester
Scoops McCracken: True, but he proved that even Uncle Fester can win a crystal football if things break your way.
Peoria Pliers: I totally agree with you there, and that's pretty much my point. Had Auburn gotten lucky a few years ago, then none of this hooey with O-Coordinators would matter
Scoops McCracken: Why does the Northeast produce zero football talent?
Peoria Pliers: That is a GREAT question, I never thought of that. If you discount Pennsylvania, there really is a talent vaccuum out there. I would guess economics have a lot to do with it....not many fields, most kids are either too poor to afford equipment or too rich and would rather play hockey?
Scoops McCracken: You'd figure with the success & popularity of the Giants & Patriots not to mention the love for the Bills & Jets that you'd hear about more guys coming from NY, Mass & the other NE states.
Peoria Pliers: I would prefer to think that most of the jokers out there are kinda wussies, like a bunch of Wayzata/Plymouth kids who are afraid to hit and would prefer less contact sports like Soccer and Basketball. I doubt that there are any stats to back me up on that, but I would like to believe it
Scoops McCracken: Yeah, but you even have nuggets of Wayzata/Tonka kids that like to hit, like both Barber's, Laurenitis, Joppru.......just a thought I guess.
Peoria Pliers: a few kids, sure, but not the bulk. And keep in mind that Barber and Laurenitis had top-end talent for parents. So does Texas really run the table this year?
Scoops McCracken: I don't know....they've gotten through two tough ones.....and I think they do fine this weekend against OSU.....I think the one will be the trip to Lubbock. You just never know.
Peoria Pliers: I just can't imagine anyone coming out of that conference unscathed, epecially with that conference title game. So out of the current crop of Big 12 QB's, who makes the best pro in 2012?
Scoops McCracken: I'd say Bradford....you?
Peoria Pliers: Tough choice, but I think I have to go with Chase Daniel, even though he is a little on the small side. He has that leadership quality and pinpoint accuracy...Bradford seems to have the mental edge but he is so protected by that monster O-Line of theirs that I doubt his ability under pressure. I'm really interested to see where they all go in the draft next April
Scoops McCracken: Well, Bradford's only a sophomore, so you get to wait on him another year. The question with Daniel is: is he just a system QB or could he be an NFL QB?
Peoria Pliers: That's always the million-dollar question, but as we have talked about before, there are fewer and fewer choices for the NFL these days since very few teams run pro-style offenses anymore. Accuracy is my biggest disqualifier these days for an NFL QB (other than a super-weak arm), and I think Daniel has the most accurate arm of anyone in the NCAA
Scoops McCracken: Mandel wrote a little bit about this in Urban Meyer possibly being the one that jumps to the NFL because the way offenses are run, the NFL is pretty much going to have to eventually run some type of sophisiticated spread offense just because of what the colleges are churning out right now. You know what I think about Urban Meyer and him being a so-called offensive genius though.
Peoria Pliers: Word up. I wonder what the next big thing is going to be once this spread craze runs out...you got any bets?
Scoops McCracken: Crazy formations where it's only a center with the OL wide out to the left or right with a RB behind it and a quick pass to one side or the other! In all seriousness, I see a cycle back to I-formation and pounding the shit out of smaller, faster teams. This more so than a wishbone, because defensive speed can neutralize an option attack, something the spread defenses are kind of equipped for doing already.
Peoria Pliers: I like the I-Formation idea...I have a cadre of braintrusts that always thought that nobody ever exploited the TE position well enough as a combo of blocker/pass catcher. And the TE's are the ones getting left in the cold with the proliferation of the spread
Scoops McCracken: That was always the secret weapoin of the I. Ohio State was the only one that came close when they had Ricky Dudley & John Lumpkin....but they didn't do it enough. The simple seam down the middle was good for 25-30 yards probably 75-80% of the time it was used.
Peoria Pliers: Ahhh, Rickey Dudley...that guy was a man amongst boys
Scoops McCracken: In college he was, at least.