Saturday in Reverse...Week 3

Week 3 of the season is in the books, but conference realignment programs are being sold separately.

Despite falling to Iowa and USC, yesterday, Pittsburgh and Syracuse scored victories off the field by throwing preemptive strikes and are apparently headed to the ACC. Guess what, the ACC may not be done, because Coack K has given his blessing for moving to 16 teams. More dominoes will fall this week.

As for falling, the lack of a defense that has plagued Auburn for the past 2 years finally caught up with them. Even though Charlotte is just down the road from Clemson, their was no Cam Newton to bail out Ted Roof and his much maligned defense. All of a sudden, Auburn's win over Miss. State last week looks less impressive with LSU's dismantling of the Bulldogs on Thursday. Auburn's burnt like toast secondary had a hard time covering their own shadow let alone Clemson. Now after an easy game this week, Auburn will travel to South Carolina, host Florida, and go to Arkansas and LSU in October. Ouch!

As for LSU, they looked mighty impressive Thursday in Starkville, where Dan Mullen still has not beaten an SEC West team that isn't named Ole Miss (more on them later). Jarret Lee is not the Jarret Lee of yesteryear and that Tiger D looks solid. They have a test at West Virginia this week, but should be favored in every game except for possibly at Alabama in November.

Speaking of the Tide, they looked somewhat lackluster in their win over North Texas. They still have major concerns on the offensive and defensive lines. Of course, the same can't be said for last week's opponent, Penn State, as they have concerns all over the field and on the sidelines. Congrats to Joe Paterno on squeaking out career win #403, 14-10 over Temple. But unfortunately nobody really knows if Joe Pa saw the game as the window to the visitor's coaches box at The Linc would not open, allegedly. So instead of being subjected to Paterno Cam, like we are Al Davis or Jerry Jones cam on the NFL games, fans were subjected to Closed Window Cam. Sadly, its time for some tough love at Penn State, as they are past due for a coaching change. The Lions players and fans in Philadelphia yesterday celebrated a win over Temple as if they won the Big 10 Championship or something. Really sad how far that program has fallen.

Who else has fallen is UCLA coach Rick Nuehiesal. He was one of the hottest names in the coaching world during his Colorado days and headed to Washington. Of course that ended badly during an NCAA Tournament Pool. Once arriving in SoCal, he proclaimed the football monopoly in Los Angeles was over. But after another beatdown at the Rose Bowl, this time at the hands of Texas, one has to feel his days in Westwood may be numbered.

Someone else on the way out should be Houston Nutt. Getting whipped 30-7 by Vanderbilt, who by the way is half way to bowl eligibility at 3-0, is embarrassing. Being pounded by the 'Dores should automatically be grounds for dismissal. Nutt had that great first year, oversigning players and going for a quick fix by raiding Mississippi's junior college system for players. But he never built the infrastructure up of his program and is suffering dearly for it. Time for AD Pete Boone to pull the plug on this experiment. Of course Ole Miss should have never fired David Cutcliffe several years ago.

Speaking of Cutcliffe, he pulled off a nice upset on the road in the ACC winning at Boston College when the Eagle's missed a last second field goal. Congrats to the Dookies, Baby!

Other teams that impressed yesterday included a less turnover plagued Notre Dame and a very speedy Florida team who was so fast that they were flagged for pass interference seven times against Tennessee. Oklahoma proved its worthy of #1 yesterday and responded to a 13-13 tie in Tallahassee to win 23-13. And the U completely dismantled the Ohio State University in South Florida last night, despite Jacory Harris' tendency to throw to the other team.

Until next week....

Saturday in Reverse... Week 2

I just saw a U Haul truck drive past, wondering if its going to Mark Richt's house? Yes, I get he's a good guy and he's won 2 SEC Titles, but the fact remains he is 20-17 since the infamous "Blackout" beat down administered by Alabama to a #1 ranked UGA in 2008. This is a what have you done for me lately business and its not good right now in Athens.

Congrats to Auburn for winning the "You offered Cam Newton $180,000 but we didn't pay him anything because we're a family and thats why he came here and no Milton McGregor didn't direct Cecil Newton to a rigged bingo machine like he did ex-Birmingham mayor Larry Lankford to pay for Cam's services Bowl Game." All kidding aside, Auburn made the plays at the end to hang on and I'm sure Gene Chizik & Dan Mullen had a great pre and post game handshake. Don't look now but Auburn will be 3-0 after next week when they beat a Clemson team that sneaked past Wofferd 35-27.

As for cross state rival Alabama, in the words of Todd Blackledge, they "choked out the Lions like a Boa Constrictor." AJ McCarron grew up and once again, an SEC team beats a Big 10 school by physically dominating its opponent. This could have been way worst, but its almost like Nick Saban feels sorry for Joe Paterno and refuses to beat him, oh say 49-7 like Michigan State. Also, don't schedule a whiteout, blackout or anything else against Alabama, in case you haven't noticed, those gimmicks don't work.

Now on to Penn State, who once again played not to get embarrassed against a top 12 opponent instead of playing to win. This is routine under Paterno as the Lions play vanilla, close to the vest offense and a simple back off, keep everything in front cover 2 on defense and die a slow death. They also used 3 time outs in the first 16 plays of the game, 1 point for each time out used on that opening field goal drive. Never seen that before and quite honsetly, PSU is one of the worst coached teams I've seen in each of the last 2 games vs 'Bama. They are constantly in disarray on the sidelines and have no creativeness on offense.

Congrats to Michigan and Notre Dame for playing under the lights and joining the rest of oh, I don't know, almost evey high school program in the country of playing football at night. Also thought it was nice of Notre Dame to honor the Boston Celtics on the side of their traditional helmets.

On another note, has there ever been so much hype for a game between two unranked opponents like Michigan and Noter Dame? It looked more like a game of NCAA 12 then a real game. 80 yard drives in 3 plays, 30 seconds?? 3 touchdowns in 2 minutes?? Notre Dame blows a 17 point 4th qtr lead, loses with over 500 yards of offense for the second straight week and has a secondary that can't cover anyone. But I still don't know if Notre Dame is eliminated from the National Title picture yet.

Nice escape by Ohio State, Kentucky, Texas, Va. Tech and Nebraska against what is supposed to be inferior competition.

And finally, Vanderbilt defeated defending Big East Champion. Is the SEC that good or the Big East that bad???

Boise State= Penn State of the '70's & Florida State of the 80's

R-E-S-P-E-C-T.

How do you earn it? How do you get it?

If you want respect, sometimes you have to go take it from someone. Thats exactly what Boise State has done over the past decade.

Yeah they had some cute gimmicks like Smurf Turf and Stormtrooper uniforms, creating a bowl game in Idaho so you can guarantee a post season invite. All of those things have been done before, even the create your own bowl game (see Arizona State/Fiesta Bowl pre Pac 10 invite).

But nothing gets respect like winning does. For Boise, the conference games won't get that done. So Boise has had to go out and play BCS opponents, on there terms because no one is going to Idaho. So the Broncos have done that and won, defeating the likes of Oregon, Virginia Tech and Georgia in three consecutive season. Having already played in two BCS Bowl games over the years, they are a legitimate threat to play in the BCS Title game.

The Broncos have followed the same map laid out by two college football legends Joe Paterno and Bobby Bowden.

Paterno and Penn State were snubbed several times after finishing undefeated, only not to get a share of a national championship through the pollsters. Eastern college football has never been that respected compared the the midwest, the south and the west coast. Paterno had three undefeated seasons in in 1968, 1969 and 1972, finishing #3, #2 and #5 respectively. Each time, the Lions won the Orange Bowl but did not gain a share of the national title. Finally when given a shot at the title after the 1978 season, PSU fell inches short of # 1 losing to Alabama at the Sugar Bowl in the Goal Line Stand by a score of 14-7.

Add into the disdain of not reaching #1, PSU had to deal with Jackie Sherrill and the dominance of the Pitt Panthers on the western half of the state. Instead of pouting, Penn State scheduled up, beginning with home and home series with Alabama and Notre Dame in the 1980's and playing Nebraska twice. By scheduling and winning its fair share of big intersectional games (PSU was an independent in the 1980's), the Lions defeated Georgia for the 1982 National Title, despite suffering a 42-21 loss to Alabama earlier in the year. In 1985, Penn State got another crack at the title, but lost to Oklahoma in the Orange Bowl, but then won probably the ultimate game of the Paterno era, defeating the Miami Hurricanes in the Fiesta Bowl to secure a 2nd title in 5 years. Its almost a certainty if PSU had not scheduled up, they would not have had those opportunities to win.

Bobby Bowden and Florida State did the same, but even to a more extreme level, adopting an anytime, anywhere mantra to scheduling. FSU went to places like Nebraska, Pittsburgh, LSU, Auburn, Ohio State, Notre Dame and Michigan. In most cases, there were no return trips to Tallahassee. Sometimes they played two straight years at Ohio State or four straight at LSU or one and done at Michigan. And guess what, FSU won the majority of those games, putting the former all girl's school into the power elite of college football. The end result is that FSU won 2 national Titles in 1993 and 1999 and played for the title on 3 other occasions, falling to Florida in 1996, Tennessee in 1998 and Oklahoma in 2000.

Now Boise State had had to do the same thing to gain respect. They've played home and home with Oregon, defeated Va. Tech and Georgia in what amounted to home games for the other team in Washington DC and Atlanta. This years UGA/Boise game replaced what was supposed to be a game in Oxford, MS vs Ole Miss.

As a result of winning these big, early season games, the Broncos have positioned themselves to get to New Orleans. And should they make it there against an Oklahoma, Alabama, LSU, Wisconson or someone else, I wouldn't bet against them in a 1 game, winner take all scenario.

Just how bad is the Penn State Basketball Program?

The words Penn State and Basketball just don't mix well for some reason. I for one have never really understood why the major land grant university in the Keystone State can't not only consistently win, but is basically one of the most irrelevent basketball programs from a BCS Conference (joined by Northwestern, Auburn & Colorado).

Think about it for a second, but their are 14 Division 1 basketball playing schools in Pennsylvania, with many of these schools being small, qaint, private liberal arts schools consisting of less then 4,000 students compared to the over 50,000 that roam the State College campus. But yet nearly everyone of those schools has had more success on the hardwood then Penn State.

So my question is why can't PSU win at basketball?

Is the situation so bad that PSU alum and head coach Ed DeChellis decided to bolt Happy Valley for the basketball hotbed that is Annapolis and the Naval Academy just after leading the Lions to their first NCAA Tournament appearance in 10 years? A PSU Alum basically went to a school that prohibits anyone from being taller then 6'7 from entering. In the words of Rick Pitino, David Robinson isn't walking through that door!

This doesn't make any sense to me, thus is their an underlying problem with the administration, athletic department or another coaching legend at the university?

Pennsylvania has some of the best high school basketball in the country, they have to in order to have 14 D-1 schools and we haven't even gone into the D-II PSAC or D-III schools? Its common knowledge that PSU has never recruited the state well but why? To me its a lack of effort or charisma by the staff. The PSU coaches in the last 25 years have been good guys (Bruce Parkhill, Jerry Dunn & Dechellis), decent coaches but no knock your door down salesmen to get recruits in the fold.

Another problem may be that basketball seems to be # 3 in the sports pecking order behind football & wrestling. It may be # 4 behind volleyball and very soon # 5 behind hockey??? PSU has always had a hard time selling its program, but the move to the Big 10 in 1992 was supposed to solve that along with the opening of the Bryce Jordan Center. These were supposed to be the spring board for PSU hoops but its never materialized. The Big 10 has had an adverse effect on PSU Basketball because instead of taking kids from DC, Philly, Baltimore and playing games in those cities, players now travel to Minnesota, Indiana & Wisconsin. Again, kids want to play in front of friends & family, not empty seats on a cold wednesday night in January vs Iowa.

Who can PSU get this late in the year? No way a coach from another BCS school comes to Happy Valley in what is basically June. So do you turn to a Larry Brown/Bobby Knight type to make a splash? Personally, the best person to hire would be Carlisle's native son Jeff Lebo. He is an excellent x and o coach who has had success everywhere except at Auburn, which nobody wins there consistently. His dad still helps out as an assistant coach and he would instantly bring some much needed good favor for the program with the state's high school coaches.

In closing, let's compare Penn State with the other 14 Division 1 schools in the state. We'll compare the modern era of the last 30 years (1982-2011) since this is when college basketball really exploded as a sport, its during the CBS era of covering the sport & the 3 point line/shot clock have used in some form for most of this time period.

Scoring system: 3 points for an NCAA berth, 1 point for advancing in each round, 2 points for a conference torunament title and 3 points for a regular season conference championship. The numbers of how good the level of basketball is in the state may surprise you. **(Ivy League does not have a conference torunament, so Penn's number is adjusted )

1. Temple-132 points ( 21 NCAA tournaments for 63 points, 14 2nd round appearances, 5 Sweet 16 & 5 Elite 8, 9 Resgular Season Conference titles for 27 points & 9 Conference Torunament titles for 27 points)

2. Villanova-104 points (19 NCAA torunaments for 57 points, 8 2nd round appearnaces, 6 Sweet 16, 5 Elite 8, two Final 4 & 10 bonus points for the 1985 NCAA Championship, 1 Big East Tournament Title & 4 Big East Regular Season TItles)

3. Penn-97 points (14 NCAA's for 42 points, 14 conference titles, 1 2nd round appearance, 7 tournament titles **, 5 bonus points for winning with smart guys)

4. Pitt-86 points ( 17 NCAA's, 5 2nd Rounds, 5 Sweet 16, 1 Elite 8, 3 Big East Tournament titles & 6 regular season titles)

5. Robert Morris-63 points (7 NCAA's, 9 regular season titles, 7 conference tournament titles)

6. St. Joe's-52 points (7 NCAA's, 2 2nd Rounds, 1 Sweet 16, 1 Elite 8, 3 A-10 tournament titles & 7 regular season titles)

7. Bucknell-42 points (5 NCAA's, 2 second round appearances, 5 conference tournament & 5 regular season titles )

8. La Salle-39 points (5 NCAA's, 2 2nd round appearances, 3 regular season titles, 4 conference tournament titles & 5 bonus points for the Lionel Simmons era)

9. Drexel-36 points (4 NCAA's, 4 tournament titles, 4 regular season titles, 1 2nd round appearnce, 3 bonus points for the Malik Rose era)

10. Lehigh-29 points ( 4 NCAA's, 3 regular season titles & 4 confernece tournmanet titles)

11. Penn State-18 points (4 NCAA's, 2nd round twice, 1 Sweet 16, 1 A-10 tournmanet title (1991))

12. Lafayette-16 points (2 NCAA's, 2 conference tournament titles & 2 regular season titles )

13. St. Francis-6 points (1 NCAA & 1 conference tournament title)

14. Duqense-0 points (never made a NCAA tournament during these 30 years)