I Just Don’t Get It

At risk of sounding like a biased and angry fan I will embark upon this post. Today I was meandering through my usual daily links when I came across this gem of reporting. http://sports.espn.go.com/ncf/news/story?id=2858779 The article started out well enough, as I was reading through it and agreeing with it for the most part. Then came Starkey’s predicted standings for next season. Somehow he managed to acknowledge the problems at hand for Pitt and Syracuse. Stating that “The conference could use a revival from old-school members Pitt and Syracuse, but this likely isn’t the year. Syracuse plays a brutal early schedule, and Pitt will be too inexperienced.” Excellent statement and very true to boot. His bit about UC reads as follows, “Cincinnati will attempt to recapture last year’s magic (4-3 in the conference) under new coach Brian Kelly and his wide-open offense The hope is that Wake Forest transfer Ben Mauk will upgrade the quarterback play while the defense continues to shine despite the loss of defensive-minded head coach Mark Dantonio.” Again a good and true statement that most other followers of UC would agree with. But one particular section later in the article is beyond my comprehension, his predicted standings.

1. Louisville
2. Rutgers
3. West Virginia
4. South Florida
5. Pittsburgh
6. Syracuse
7. Cincinnati
8. Connecticut

I am still dumbfounded by this, Pitt has lost Tyler Palko, Darrell Revis and HB Blades from a team that absolutely imploded down the stretch and finished a healthy 7th in the conference standings and now, losing three heart and soul type players, they are going to somehow improve two spots in the standings? It defies comprehension. Sure Dave Wanstead has brought in a lot of talent in the last two classes, but Pitt has done nothing but take steps back since going to the Fiesta Bowl after the 2004 season. There is little reason to think that they will take a step forward this year, make no mistake about it finishing fifth would be a step forward. Its a step that is not going happen this year.

Syracuse has won 1 conference game in the Big East’s current format, they need to replace last years starting QB. Granted Perry Patterson did not set the world on fire, but he was an experienced signal caller at the very least. One of last seasons most productive LB’s, Kelvin Smith, is gone. It probably comes as news to Joe Starkey that Delone Carter, the Orange’s leading rusher last season, is done for the year sourtesy of a dislocated hip and it will be up to Curtis Brinkley to carry the load. This team ranked in the bottom ten nationaly of almost every team statistical category. What makes anyone think this team will finish anywhere but the bottom of the barrel?

Cincinnati will not win the Big East this year, they probably won’t come very close either. However this is a better team than 7th in the Big East. Pitt might have more talent but they haven’t proven anything and have one of the worst coaching staffs in the conference and no production aside from Derrik Kinder and LeRod Stephens-Howling. Syracuse is 1 for 13 in the Big East under Greg Robinson and the signs of improvement are not readily available, though Jameel McClain is a very nice player and deserves some sort of notice for his abilities. The Bearcats do have a new coach and the changeover could present some problems, but the defense is good enough to keep UC in every game, in much the same way it did last year, and maybe win one or two of them, again in much the same way they did last year. Thats what can happen when a unit returns 9 starters, it can carry a team. Bottom Line, I’m pretty convinced that Joe Starkey looked a lot like the guy who just delivered my Pizza when he was writing this horrid excuse for a journalistic exercise, stoned out of his mind!

Snazzy Title Elsewhere

I was perusing my usual sites this afternoon in between work and study and came across this article.  I understand that quarterback controversies are an inevitable part of the game in this day and age. Blame it on the media if you will, i chalk it up to the heightened level of pressure that comes with playing Division I Football in this day and age where the pressure is much more than it ever was before. Not just at the quarterback position but across the board, the pressure is so much greater than it ever was before. However seeing the inherent ineptitude of the general public to understand that there is far more that goes into winning, or losing, a game than the play of the quarterback, the quarterback position is always what gets ink, always. So be that as it may it should come to no one’s surprise that some members of the media are zeroing in on potential quarterback controversies across the country. It is a general rule, adhered to by most in the coaching community, that having more than one starting quarterback is a good way to create a bad season. It is understood, but occasionally this tenant of the game faces challenges from a student of the game who intends to disprove this theorem. I get the feeling that this will be one of those seasons, where this method of convention will be tested from many different angles. Be it from Euguene, Stillwater or some other location. The bottom line is that it is not going to work, anywhere on a consistent basis. I think that the root of this movement will stem from the pied piper of College Football, Urban Meyer and his utterly brilliant use of Tim Tebow last year. Football is a copy cat game, and it has always been that way. It is worth noting that Meyer is not the first coach to utilize a future star of the franchise in a limited role as a true freshman. Bobby Petrino did the same thing with Brian Brohm, but to a larger extent. That is the inherent difference between these two situations and what could happen this fall. It is one thing to get the future of the franchise meaningful playing time in an attempt season them for the future. It is an entirely different thing to do a one for one switch on a series to series basis, which is something that was seen from the Ducks in their bowl game under then Offensive Coordinator Gary Crowton. Doing such is the worst possible situation to put a team in. Given the amount of time that the coaches spend with their players there is no reason not to make a call one way or the other. A team is better off riding it out with a bad quarterback then cycling between two bad quarterbacks. For whatever reason I think we are going to see a few coaches around the country fail to make a decision one way or the other and accordingly we are going to see some teams struggle as a result.