Rites of Autumn

Eight Belles, What a Heart...

We here at RIVALSflag love the ponies, none more than the first Saturday in May from Louisville.  Today we saw maybe the most game effort by a filly we had ever seen up to this point in our racing lives.  Then tragedy struck once again as it did with Barbaro; Eight Belles had no front legs to stand on with the damage so severe that she had to be put down on the track.  I personally shed a tear and had to turn the TV off because the grandchildren were there watching with me.  We had been cheering Big Brown on big time since we had placed a little wager on him but we also were cheering on the big filly, all 17 hands of her.  Then it happened and the mood went from jubilation to one of sadness.  Our best wishes go out to her owners and handlers; going to be a long tough night for them...

Is everything OK at MEECHIGAN...

Four million dollars is a lot of money.  That is what WVU says Michigan coach Rich Rodriguez owes them to satisfy his contractual obligations.  With his first season at Michigan coming up, he (RR) is having to go through depositions in order for legal counsels to prepare for the case.  Am I off base here with my thinking but if I were the Michigan AD I would be talking with RR's legal counsel to see if there was some way to settle this so all of RR's attention could be on the upcoming season and recruiting.  Those of you that have read this blog know that their is a whole lot of admiration for the Wolverine program within this business.  So it pains me to write this.  Is there any buyer's remorse within the administration at A2?  In the overall scheme of things with Michigan football, kicking in a few million to end this ugly mess would seem to be the prudent thing to do.  Do you agree or disagree?  That is unless things are not as they seem on the surface.  I guess time will tell...

RoA

Spring ball is over...who improved?

Spring ball has wrapped up and was just wondering who thinks their team improved this offseason? Defending National Champ LSU looks to have possibly taken a step back without Perrilloux during their spring practices although the old adage  that their are no games won during spring ball applies at a lot of places.  Not sure Clausen at ND has improved much by the highlights I watched on TV over the weekend.  Michigan is still looking for a QB to run the spread and from what I have read they are still looking.  Daniel at Mizzou looked awful good in their spring game and the 2 headed monster at Illinois (Juice and Eddie McGee) looked like they had made progress.  Penn State did not have a turnover during their spring game which is pretty remarkable since none of the QB's on their roster had much experience going into the spring.  We are now less than 4 months away from the start of fall camp and the excitement is building here at RIVALSflag.  Just plunked down some cash for 8 season tickets at Illinois this fall.  The road schedule looks tough for the Illini with games against Mizzou, Michigan, Wisconsin and Penn State.  Tougher road than last year to say the least but coming off last year the spirits are high within Illini Nation.  May be able to make the game at Penn State thanks to a Nittany Lion fan who owns a couple Penn State RIVALSflags. The Illini have experience at QB and the defensive front which will hopefully allow the back 7 to get their act together although the opener against a pre-season Top Ten ranked Mizzou will be tough on the new guys at safety.  Coach Miles at LSU thinks his front four will be a ton for the boyz in Baton Rouge and that is without Glenn Dorsey.  Maybe Ohio State is catching USC in the right year with no returning QB with much experience but then again, it is USC at the Coliseum.  The storylines for this upcoming season are many; tell me about your team and what are the few things that need to happen to allow for a breakthrough year.  Sorry for the long absence but we are back and talking college football...

RoA 

Semper Fi NY Giants...

In case you missed it, the NY Giants had on their sidelines this year a wounded Iraq veteran.  A US Marine Lieutenant Colonel, he lost both legs to a roadside bomb returning from a ceremony for fallen comrades.  He played at West Point in the late 80's and is friends with a Giants assistant who was a former team member at Army.  We here at RIVALSflag hope that somehow, someway, this brave warrior gets a Super Bowl ring.  In the interview we saw, every Giant interviewed said they would give their ring to him if somehow the NFL would not provide one.  Maybe, just maybe, the act of kindness and compassion exhibited by Coach Coughlin and the Giants was paid back on Sunday.

Some tool reporter for CBS Sportsline opened his column on the game saying it was the worst Super Bowl he'd ever seen for 3 quarters.  What an idiot.  Too bad the new generation can only appreciate spread offenses and basketball scores.  What we witnessed was a game of incredible intensity and hitting for 4 quarters.  Sure wish CBS would hire some columnists who have played and appreciate all phases of the game (I am available).  The game was a magnificent display of the game of football and was the highest rated in TV history.  We think that last fact is a testament to the guys total misread and misrepresentation of one of the great Super Bowls of all time...

RoA

Recruiting Wars and looking ahead...

Who is going to get the #1 player in the nation?  Word has it that Terelle Pryor was visited by Les Miles and LSU is now on his list?  Right now, the 6' 6" Pryor has Oregon, Michigan, Ohio State and LSU on his visit schedule.  Will the midwest kid stay home with the Big 10 or will the Nike/Oregon Ducks sweep him off to the left coast.  LSU can lay rightful claim that they expect to be in the hunt for the National Title again next year and would love for him (Pryor) to be a part of it.  From what I have watched on You Tube, the kid is a player.  He won't be able to run by and or around the DB's on the major D1 level as he did his senior year in high school, or will he?  Vince Young look alike from the clips.  BIG DEAL if he goes to Michigan, he could be the starter as a true freshman.  Would only be the 2nd time in Michigan history that a freshman QB started the opener.

Georgia's got a great team coming back next year but the schedule is brutal.  They play 4 straight conference road games before the season finale with Georgia Tech.  Not just any road games, a tough stretch.  They play LSU, Florida, Kentucky and Auburn in a row on the road.  Wow, coming through that with just one loss would be fantastic.

USC and Ohio State start a home and home in 2008 in the Coliseum.  USC has to find a new QB but they will trot out a lot of talent in week 2 next year against the Buckeyes.  Ohio State returns Lauranitis to the defense and the entire backfield returns; should be a great ballgame.

Illinois and Mizzou open the season at the Dome in St. Louis; 2 teams coming off great years for historically 2nd tier in their respective conferences.  Besides the 2 losses last year to Oklahoma, the Illini were the only other team to challenge the Tigers.  I don't do dome games but I imagine this one will get the networks attention in about 5 months.

Am I sick or what?  I've already been looking at the schedule for 2008 and we just put 2007 to bed.  What can I say?  Counting the days to National Signing Day and then the opener in late August...

RoA

Defensive Pressure; LSU very, very good

The LSU defensive line, Ricky Jean_Francois and Glenn Dorsey especially, was flat unstoppable after the first Ohio State series.  What would LSU have been if Dorsey was healthy and Ricky Jean-Francois (all time name team candidate, especially at LSU) would have been eligible.  RJF blocked the field goal that turned the tide of the game in the second quarter with the score tied 10-10.  LSU scored the next 31 to put the Buckeyes away.

Ohio State played hard but the LSU corners took away the wideouts early and the dline then pressured the QB to throw up some easy picks and it was over when LSU got the pick and made it 24-10.  No way Ohio State was going to score 17 unanswered on the Tigers and hold a very diverse LSU offense scoreless.  To their credit, the Buckeyes fought to the end but to no avail.  LSU's second national title in 5 years.

Proponents of the Plus One will point to this vote/decision to make LSU the champion as the reason that we need a Plus One.  Who you going to leave out?  USC, Georgia, West Virginia or Kansas?  The Jayhawks deserve to be in the discussion with their win over Va Tech.  Ok, if you go more than plus one then when does it start?  What happens to the Bowl system?  Is the student-athlete being best served by a playoff?  The grind of the regular season takes a toll and the kids are there to get an education.  If there ever is a Plus One, or playoff, the powers to be need to be sure that some sort of stipend for all players at the D1 level.  $500 a month each year sounds like a fair number; with head coaches making in the 2 to 4 million range and coordinators at 250k, seems to me that 100 million for the D1 football scholarship participants each year could be carved out of the pot of money generated by any playoff system.

Been a great year and I've enjoyed it tremendously, 2008 looks to be another exciting year for the game we all love, college football.

LSU against Ohio State; Pick your Poison

I've looked at the game from every angle and I see no clear cut advantage for either team.  So you tell me who is going to win and why.  My take is that whoever takes care of the ball better wins the game.  Turnovers will tell the tale on who is the 2008 BCS National Title winner in my humble opinion.  What's yours?

RoA

USC, Michigan Impress; Illini Depress

USC and Michigan looked awfully good in their bowl games.  The Michigan win was especially sweet for me personally since Lloyd Carr is a former coach and a friend.  He deserved to go out with a win and his guys played their hearts out against the Gators and Heisman winner Tim Tebow.  I thought that Michigan would come up with a big effort but wasn't sure it would be enough for the talented Gators.  Without Mike Hart's fumbles in the red zone it would have not even been close.  Another thing that my eyes witnessed was that Michigan had as much speed as Florida; the pundits seem to think that the thick ankled guys from the Big 10 can't run with teams from the SEC.  Myth debunked and hopefully that kind of talk is over for some time now.

USC was the beneficiary of a young Illinois team not playing very well.  The turnovers killed the young Illini as well as not showing USC anything new on either side of the ball.  But give USC credit, they took advantage of every turnover and scored TD's after each and every mistake.  Hats off to Pete Carroll and his staff for the game plan on defense and the few new wrinkles they came up with on the offensive side of the ball.  But, the Illini will be back next year and hopefully the maturing process will help.  Illinois started a bunch of kids (freshmen and sophomores) and the experience of the Rose Bowl should help next year on trips to Madison, Ann Arbor, etc.

Now we have the big one left, LSU versus Ohio State.  More on that one in the next post...

Happy New Year to All

It is a little after midnight CST.  Usually I am long gone by now but with the excitement of the Illini in the Rose Bowl tomorrow, well I have pregame jitters.  I have maybe paid too much attention to the Illini on this blog this fall but as a long suffering fan of 40 years, well I hope those of you who are not a part of Illini Nation understand.  This comes from the heart for all college football fans everywhere; we here at RIVALSflag like each and every team out there.  As I gaze around my surroundings here, I look to my right and I see Archie Griffin and Woody Hayes.  I look on my desk and there is a Coke bottle with the LSU logo on it from the National Champs in 2003.  A card from Kirk Ferenz at Iowa lays on my desk.  A book about Bear Bryant, "I Ain't Never Been Nothing but a Winner" is on the bookshelf in front of me.  In a cup on my desk is my ticket from this year's Michigan/Oregon game; on a shelf is my Michigan RIVALSflag signed by Bo and Coach Carr.  Photos of our family at tailgates line the walls.  One has Dick Butkus holding our Iowa Hawkeye girl when she was 3 years old in the north end zone at Memorial Stadium in Champaign.  I guess what I am trying to say is that I love the college game.  It took a poor kid from Geneseo, Illinois to places that he never ever dreamed of seeing.  I have the hats my dad wore in the 70's to Illinois games all over this country.  I am indeed a lucky man to have played the game and it has been a part of me all these years.  Thanks to all those who have come by to visit the site.  It has been an honor and a pleasure to write about the game that I fell in love with 40 years ago in Kinnick Stadium at the University of Iowa.  We can only hope that the 2008 season has as much excitement as the season that we all just witnessed; from the App State win over Michigan, Stanford over USC, Arkansas over LSU to Illinois over Ohio State, it was truly a season for the ages...

The Spirit of the Chief walks the Arroyo Seco

The debate about Chief Illiniwek has quieted the past few months since "The Last Dance."  For those of us who see it as another tradition buckling under the weight of political correctness, it still is an open sore.  The opponents of the Chief called the University's symbol "racist."  The NCAA deemed that Illinois would be unable to host NCAA functions due to the hostile environment created by his 7 minute performance with the band during halftimes of football and basketball games.  Led by a University professor and a very vocal "MINORITY," the Chief danced for the last time at the final home basketball game in February of 2007.

To those of us who disagree with the capitulation to the "anti-Chief" minority, the trip to the Rose Bowl is emblematic that the fight is not yet over.  Thousands of Illini Nation will be wearing Illinois gear with the Chief symbol on New Year's Day.  Our great and reverent symbol was taken away in 2007 because Illini Nation has no tribe to "payoff" (see Florida State payments to the Seminole tribe of Florida).  The "Illini" were not a tribe as in the typical sense, i.e. Navajo, Sioux, etc.  The Illini were a federation of various Indian people who came together to share their talents to make life better for all those involved.  Sounds a lot like the University that I attended some 30 years ago.  Various people coming together to learn from and improve the lives of others.

As Illini Nation gathers on the hallowed ground of the Arroyo Seco and Rose Bowl this coming new year, the spirit of Chief Illiniwek walks with them.  After the Marching Illini Band finishes "3-in-1" (3 school songs played as one long song) you will hear the Rose Bowl filled with Illini Nation saying "Chief, Chief" deep voiced and loud.  It's a tradition that as of yet, the vocal minority has not been able to take from proud Illini everywhere...

RoA