Koo’s Corner

First off I wanted to wish everyone a Happy New Years. New Year’s day and New Year Eve serves up a total of 12 bowl games, many of which are worth checking out.

Jockeying for 08 position

In particular a lot of highly ranked teams who will be returning a lot of talent next year, will be auditioning for pre season rankings next year.

USC, Illinois, Georgia, Florida, and Missouri all play tomorrow and will be looking to carry some momentum into 2007. I am absolutely amazed at many how great programs will be returning a talented and expereinced quarterback for possible 2008 National Championship runs. Below is a list of top 07 teams who will have their signal caller back next year.

- Georgia (Matt Strafford)

- Missouri (Chase Daniels)

- Ohio State (Todd Boeckman)

- Florida (Tim Tebow)

- Kansas (Todd Reesing)

- Illinois ( Juice Williams)

- West Virginia (Pat White)

- Texas ( Colt Mccoy)

Teams like USF, Indiana, Oklahoma State, Texas Tech, and Cal also bring some talent back at QB but are darkhorses to make some noise on the national scene in 2008

Big 12 in 2008

The Big 12 has long been a two team conference with Oklahoma and Texas dominating the conference since Nebraska’s demise. This year, people expected more of the same but were surprised with the emergence of Missouri and Kansas. These four programs will be strong again next year in addition to programs like Kansas State, Texas Tech, Oklahoma State, and Colorado making progress as well. Despite the media’s infatuation with the SEC, look for the Big 12 to be the stronger conference next year.

Oklahoma sends home shoplifting DT

The list of bonehead incidents involving college football players grew again today as Sooner starting DT DeMarcus Granger was sent home from bowl game preparation for stealing a jacket for Burlington Coat Factory. I sympathize with the Sooner fan base and the young man as this is a very emberassing incident that will draw ire of fans for years to come, espicially in the wake of the Rhett Bomar scandal. I am curious what the jacket looked like.

“Mr. Granger removed an anti-theft device from a jacket and then concealed the jacket in a bag. He exited the store walking past the cash registers without paying for the jacket,” Mike Horn, a spokesman for the Tempe Police Department, said in a statement.

Granger admitted committing the offense and was booked into the Tempe City Jail on one count of shoplifting, Horn said. He later bonded out of jail.”

Ten Plays that Got The Buckeyes to New Orleans Article

For the second year in a row the Buckeyes made the BCS Championship game. Below is a link to my article highlighting the ten plays that were most instrumental in allowing them to get back to the championship game.

http://www.bucknuts.com/news/story.php?article=2601

FOX and BCS sucks for viewers

This is the second year that FOX has the rights for the BCS bowls (minus the Rose Bowl). I am growing very weary of Fox lately. They acquired the MLB post season rights from NBC about a decade ago and butchered coverage of that event. The dropoff from Bob Costas to Joe Buck is huge.

Fox, who doesn’t broadcast one regular season college game, plug the upcoming bowl games through out their NFL coverage. Unfortunately millions of NFL viewers are subjected to half ass NFL announcers and analysts converse about the upcoming bowl games when it’s absolutely clear they have no knowledge of the games. No mention of players, coaches, thing to watch for, but rather recycled garbage that misses the mark completely.

The most disappointing element of this is that ABC/ESPN have a full fledged team of guys specializing in college. While some of them are entertaining imbeciles (Mark May and Lou Holtz), others like Chris Fowler, Brent Mustberger, Mike Tirico, Rece Davis, Lee Corso, etc are highly knowledgable and articulate about the college football landscape. Its a shame for fans that such an inferior entity cover these great games.

Today it was announced that Vinny Testeverde will be retiring after Sunday, capping a 21 year campaign. Testeverde is an iconic figure to football fans for his career longevity and surprising resurgences in his 40’s with teams like the Cowboys, Jets, Patriots, and Panthers.

Vinny then……….                     Vinny Now

Plagued by limited mobility and a propensity to throw interceptions (third all time!) Testeverde was given up for dead numerous times for his career. Wikipedia has a great writeup on his remarkable twilight years in which he bounced around from team to team, to the astonishment of fans. In most of these cases, circumstances allowed Testeverde to play and even start.

Today we say goodbye to the Heisman Winner from 1986. By comparison the second oldest Heisman still in the NFL is the 1997 winner, Charles Woodson.

Vinny breaking into the league over 20 years ago

I have a couple of items for benkoo.com in the works before the year closes but wanted to distinguish Judd Apatow as my person of the year. Apatow declined to accept in person citing a busy schedule but released a statement that “this was the proudest moment of my entire career”.

For many of you, the name doesn’t ring a bell which is is somewhat of travesty in my opinion. Apatow is the creative mind between the new generation of comedic gems to follow in the foot steps of the Frat Pack movies in recent years (Zoolander, Wedding Crashers, Old School)

Apatow has overseen in some capacity the following films which includes two of my top 5 of 2007

- Walk Hard (writer producer) -haven’t seen it but people keep alerting me on how good it is

- Superbad (Producer)- funniest movies of the year?

- Knocked Up (Director, Writer, Producer) - Apatow should be applauded for his casting of Katherine Heigel (bummed she just got married) as well as the casting of his real life wive as the older sister.

- Talledga Nights (Producer) - poking fun of nascar. Genius.

- Anchorman (Producer)- Steve Carrell and Will Ferrell. Sweet!

- 40 Year Old Virgin (Diretor, Writer, Producer- hilarious and somewhat poignant

Apatow has had a major role in elevating the careers of great actors like Steve Carrell, Seth Rogan, Jonah Hill, Paul Rudd, and John C Reilly. With Apatow’s growing success he was able to reunite his writing team from the defunct television cult classic, Freaks and Geeks.

Freaks and Geeks Clip Below

Apatow has a handful of movies in the works for 2008 including Pineapple Express, Don’t Mess With Zohan, Drillbit Taylor, Forgetting Sarah Marshall, and Step Brothers. These films will include the likes of Seth Rogan, Adam Sandler, Will Ferrel, and a handful of other Apatow collaborators.

While its easy to ignore the guy behind the scenes, its even harder to ignore the success and influence Apatow has had on the entertainment scene the past couple of years. His films are often watched several times in theatres as well as on DVD and are staples to the Generation Y demographic.

Congrats Judd, on a successful 2007 and much thanks for picking up the slack for the rest of Hollywood.

I tried to find a new T Mobile commercial on youtube for this week’s commercial of the week. Its the one with a normal looking guy making an ass out of himself trying to leave a voice mail for a girl he took out for a date, evoking a famous scene in the movie Swingers.

While I came up empty handed for the T Mobile Commercial, I found the below commercial for Statoil, a leading oil and gas station company in Europe. Definitely a stretch from past winners, but this seasonal commercial really warrants the recognition.

Today I took glance at my options in case I wanted to take in a movie this extended Holiday weekend. Among my options were two films that starred a pair I have grown to appreciate over the years.

Phillip Seymour Hoffman in “Charlie Wilson’s War” and John C Reilly in “Walk Hard” are two men in their young 40’s who have really advanced their careers by picking terrific secondary roles in a wide spectrum of movies that have were either Blockbuster hits or cult classics. In an industry where looks can sometimes be valued over acting ability and  bigger paychecks can lead ambitious actors astray from solid projects, its great to see Hoffman and Reilly reaping the benefits of years of shrewd project selection.

Phillip Seymour Hoffman- age 40

Starring in: Charlie Wilson’s War with Julia Roberts and Tom Hanks

Officially blew up when: Won Best Actor for role in Capote

Movies/Roles he was smart to take in chronological order:

Scent of a Women, Twister, Boogie Nights, The Big Lebowski, Patch Adams, Magnolia, Talented Mr. Ripley, Punch Drunk Love, Almost Famous, Cold Mountain, Along Came Polly, Capote, Mission Impossible 3, Charlie Wilson’s War

Analysis:

Although it wasn’t until recently that Hoffman had mainstream name recognition, he was continuously in a wide assortment of classic films throughout the nineties before moving onto bigger and better things of late. Boogie Nights and Big Lebowski are two comedic cult classics that elevated his status to younger viewers. Magnolia, Mr. Ripley, Cold Mountain, and Punch Drunk Love really were films that really showed his ability to act to the art house movie connoisseur type viewer.

Hoffman was hilarious in Along Came Polly and followed it up with his award winning Capote performance. With Mission Impossible 3 under his belt, Hoffman has shown the diversity and talent to star in any role that suits his fancy.

John C Reilly- 42

Starring in- Walk Hard

Officially Blew Up When - Nowish

Movies/Roles he was smart to take in chronological order:

The River Wild, Boogie Nights, The Thin Red Line, Never Been Kissed, Magnolia, The Perfect Storm, Gangs of New York, Chicago, The Aviator, Talladega Nights

Analysis:

Reilly had some hit and misses in the nineties but was smart to team with Hoffman in movies like Magnolia and Boogie Nights. He played co starring roles in Gangs of New York, Chicago, and The Aviator, all three of which were nominated for best picture with Chicago winning. Although many think he is more of a pure comedic role actor with his roles in Judd Appatow movies (Talledga Nights and Walk Hard), Reilly has a good portfolio in critically acclaimed dramas as well.

Reilly seems content for now to make his living in comedies co starring with Will Ferrel in Step Brothers and co starring with Sean William Scott (Stiffler) in Quebec. Why mess with a good thing?

Sacha Baron Cohen announced the retiring of his two most popular characters, the uneducated materialistic and sexually ambitious white rapper Ali G and Borat, the anti semitic sexist Kazakhstany and socially awkward Borat.

Ali G and Borat were the bulk of Cohen’s critically acclaimed but controversial characters in Cohen’s television spots that aired in England before coming over to America on HBO. Cohen grew a very large and very endearing group of cult followers based on these 2 characters. Viewers including myself marveled at Cohen’s creativity to corner real people in real situations unaware that his fake outlandish characters were in act. Below are some clips

Borat buying a home

Cohen’s humor was deemed by many to be brilliant and a much needed break in the comedy world while also serving as a comedic social commentary on issues stemming from racism, sexism, drugs, and religion. Most impressive was Cohen’s ability to dupe the likes of many revered politicians, business men, fashion designers, and entertainers into thinking his ridiculous characters were in fact real people.Cohen’s underground success on HBO led to his being the elected commencement speaker at Harvard and more importantly led to his Borat movie deal with Universal. Borat the movie although controversial made a large splash at the box office, in the news, and at the water cooler. In short the low budget believed to be cult audience movie has become entrenched in pop culture, especially for those in the 15-35 age bracket.

Ali G Invents the Ice Cream Glove

Unfortunately Borat’s success proved to be the characters undoing as Cohen could no longer setup sketches on unsuspecting participants. With Cohen’s film career on the rise (Talladega Nights, Sweeney Todd) and a Bruno movie rumored to be in production (Cohen’s third character, a gay anti semitic fashion diva) Cohen decided to put Ali G and Borat behind him and probably rightfully so. Continuing these characters would have been problematic as the real humor is in the reactions, commentary, and opinions that Borat and Ali G painfully coerce out of the unassuming participants.

With that being said, its sad to see them go but I am appreciative of how long and how hard Cohen took these characters and their endeavors. Absolutely brilliant. I hope the rumored Bruno movie will be formally announced soon (probably after its filmed as he Cohen likes to film in secret) and we have last hurrah thanks to one of the most brilliantly comedic minds of our times.

Clip of Bruno at fashion show

First I just wanted to say that I will be attending the BCS Championship game and plan on blogging about the experience (maybe even some video and pics to go along). Sinking in the time and money on this trip is always a gamble. Some of my fondest memories in life are of hitting the road for a highly anticipated game, soaking up a new city, watching a closely contested game, and soaking up the thrill of victory.However when traveling into enemy territory (that’s what it can feel like) the harassment, travel time, ticket/trip costs, coupled with a painful defeat can make the experience a complete nightmare.

Many Buckeye fans are weary of going this year, espicially with the game being in LSU’s backyard in New Orleans. Factors making the decision tough for Buckeye fans include

- Buckeyes being 4 1/2 point underdogs

- Pricier than normal prices on flights and hotels

- Thoughts of last year’s debacle in the desert, which hurt all Buckeye fans heart’s while burning a hole in other’s wallets.

- Fear of a very hostile pre game and post game atmosphere with LSU fans having a reputation for being very enthusiastic, vocal, and full of bravado

I was on the fence about making the trip but am optimistic it will turn out for the better. Only time will tell. I am also on the hook for convincing 2-3 friends to make the commitment as well. The saying applies, “In Tressel We Trust”

Other Interesting Items

- On a somber note, starting CB Donald Washington has been suspended for the championship game for the Buckeyes for violating team rules. Washington had an absolutely stellar year and will be missed come January 7th. Many believe Chimdi Chekwa will start in his place with Jamario O Neal filling in the Nickel Defense.

- Florida State will be without the services of about 1/2 of their starters due to an academic cheating scandal (23 players suspended.. This news leaked yesterday and many shrewd betters were able to use this information before the line was pulled until the formal announcement was made.

- This football recruiting season has had a disproportionate amount of early commitments. While not really newsworthy all the coaching changes and reshuffling of staffs has caused a sizable amount of committed players to re open up their college recruitments as well.

The case of DJ Woods is an interesting one as Woods opted for Nebraska in early September over Ohio State. By October, Woods was looking at other schools as Nebraska started to implode, with OSU rumored to have pulled his scholarship offer. Bill Callahan was fired and Woods was back on the free market not wanting to be part of the program rebuilding efforts in Lincoln. Woods settled on West Virgnia only to have head coach Rick Rodriguez move onto Michigan. Woods has not heard anything from the West Virginia staff about his standing with the program and has yet to hear anything from Rodriguez and his new regime in Michigan.

Woods’ case is one of many interesting story lines on the national recruiting scene where the coaching shuffle and other fluid moving scenarios have stirred up the recruiting landscape. Although not affected by major coaching changes, Florida State and Miami’s woes have caused some of their commits to re evaluate their options.

- There are some absolutely wild rumors circulating about West Virginia regarding Big name recruits, the current coaching staff, the possibility of Rodriguez returning, and who his replacement will be. Very interested to see what materializes.

- Lastly its being reported that regardless of Brian Billick’s man crush on Kyle Boller, Troy Smith is likely to get his first NFL start on Sunday. Smith is a legend in Buckeye lore, with many believing that the NFL has turned a blind eye to his potential. Baltimore fans, media, and players have seemed to embrace Smith (and have soured Boller and Billick) so it will be very interesting to see what unfolds on Sunday.

- My colleague at Bucknuts, Jeff Rapp, wrote a fantastic article about Nader Abdallah, a New Orleans native on the Buckeyes whose family actually moved in with him at OSU due to be displaced because of Hurricane Katrina. Great story.

I have some future bucknuts articles in the works so stay tuned.

The last several years, headlines were made as big time networks, shows, professional sporting leagues, and movie studious fought to keep their content off of youtube and away from the masses. Viacom sued, NBC aggressively fought to keep the SNL sketch and internet phenomenons “Dick in A Box” and”Lazy Sunday” , and studious cried foul when trailers pre maturely circulated on the massively popular video depository.

While its a shame this content is not available on demand via youtube, its 100% understandable that these companies wanted to protect their business interests by choosing how, when, and where people view their programming. Studious pay and receive large sums of money to air never seen before trailers before a big time movie, professional leagues want you to watch highlights on their web properties, and television networks need you to tune in or visit their website to capture ad revenue to help pay for production costs.

But today I was absolutely baffled at how many of my “Commercial of the Week” blogs no longer had valid youtube urls to show the actual commercial (Sharp, EA, and others removed). I can only assume that in the majority of these scenarios, the ad agency or advertiser requested to take off the commercial from youtube. But why?

Advertisers throw billions of dollars annually to spread their company or products gospel to the masses. With so many people avoiding advertisements via tivo and shifting away from print media to online, you would think advertisers would embrace the idea of allowing curious potential consumers to view advertisements online.

Some do, as companies will upload their commercials onto the site themselves or just turn a blind eye to the repurposing of their content. In fact Youtube has embraced working with companies to display their content allowing them the opportunity to build a customized channel which users can subscribe to and find videos faster. (CBS channel screenshot below)

These companies understand that any ad impression is a good one regardless of the fact that youtube’s platform allows for negative comments and attacking response videos. While some fear that allowing an open forum for thousands to criticize your commercials warrants restricting ads from youtube, advertisers should take note at just how many consumers are surfing Youtube in search of funny or interesting commercials. Below is a recap of the top 3 commercials of the week on Benkoo.com based on their listed web traffic. Keep in mind this does not include replicas of the same ad on youtube but just the exact video found on my site.

3- Ipod Nano - 435,000

2- Peyton Manning Pep Talk 625,000 views

1- Toyota Tacoma 2.175 million views

3 Weeks ago, West Virginia a 29 point favorite lost to a lowly Pittsburgh team thus costing them a birth in the national championship game. It was a shocking development thast has only been amplified as a domino affect has taken place all over the college football landscape. Years from now this upset may be looked upon as a huge turning point for multiple programs all over the country. Although some of this is pure speculation lets take a brief look at the implications of this game.
Pittsburgh-

Pittsburgh had a signature win to sell to big time recruits and rallied in the coming weeks to ink some of the nation’s best players who took notice of the upset win while choosing to ignore the 5-7 record. Sine the game Pitt has secured verbals from highly touted players such as QB Zach Stoudt, OL Robb Houser, RB/CB Cameron Saddler , with rumors of Saddler’s teammate DE/LB Shayne Hale close behind. These verbals have really given the program some momentum and will likely elevate the program in a mediocre Big East over the years to come.

LSU-

It is my belief that Les Miles has tentatively accepted to leave LSU to fill the Michigan head coaching vacancy. Although he denied this rumor before the WV loss, I think he was just buying some time so he could announce it on his own terms down the road hoping to avoid a John L Smith Louisville incident. However Miles count not anticipate the WV loss nor the subsequent vaulting of his Tigers to the national championship game. It was unfathomable that the Tigers could make such a dramatic leap up the rankings and it threw Miles for a curveball.

You can’t leave a head coaching position in the weeks leading up to a national championship game and Miles and Michigan knew it. Miles laid low and signed an extension with LSU hoping Michigan would get the message. Michigan didn’t and finally they made one final run at Miles when the spoke 2 weeks later. Probably a “so your leaving us at the alter?” conversation. Miles is now entrenched at LSU having to have turned down his dream job at his alma mateur.

Nebraska-

This one is even more of a stretch so take this one with a grain of salt. LSU defensive coordinator, Bo Pelini, was either going to take the potential LSU coaching vacancy or the empty Nebraska position. With Miles believed to be a done deal to Michigan, Pelini was confident he would be named the new LSU head coach (the job he preferred over Nebraska). With the WV loss locking Miles into LSU, Pelini accepted the Nebraska job in the days after. Although its possible he would have taken the job anyways, I think Pelini was willing to wait it out for a shot at the LSU job and was confident the Nebraska offer would stay on the table for the duration.

Michigan

With their top choice for the job out of play, Michigan recommenced their coaching search which settled on Rodriguez today. Obviously if WV wins against Pitt, there is no way Rodriguez can walk away from WV (his alma matuer) in the weeks leading up to the championship game. With the Michigan job now open thanks largely in part to his ‘nightmare’ and potentially realizing that he might not get as good of shot at a championship game in Morgantown, Rodriguez succumbed to Michigan’s sales pitch and took the job.

Michigan now will run a spread offense which has many thinking that QB incumbent Ryan Mallett will transfer to Arkansas or elsewhere as he is the polar opposite of a typical spread offense QB. Essentially its possible the WV loss switched head coach of Michigan from Miles to Rodriguez and may have changed their next quarterback as well. However the news inst all bad on the quarterback front as now number 1 player in the country, QB Terrelle Pryor is now looking at Michigan instead of West Virginia due to Rodriguez’s spread system.

Below is some good analysis from a Michigan fan friend of mine, Aaron, who did not approve the hiring of Rodriguez.

“1. his teams always tank in big games
2. his schemes put up big points but don’t produce nfl stars at qb which will eventualy hurt recruiting in my opinion
3. this is the guy that recruited and covered for both pacman jones and chris henry, nuff said
4. he flirted for two years with leaving his alma mater, you think he’d hesitate to leave if he got a better offer? $2.4 mill isn’t t hat much”

West Virgina-

The loss of Rodriguez is going to hurt. I am hearing that Virginia Tech defensive coordinator Bud Foster is likely the next coach which I would think would be a pretty shrewd hire. Regardless, Rodriguez built the program from the ground up and put West Virginia on the map. More than likely your going to see a significant drop off from a program that was just settling in as a perennial power. Only time will tell if this will be a Nebraska/Miami fall from grace or just a small drop off.

On the recruiting front West Virginia was “in” on the recruitment of several high profile recruits including Pryor (think Vince Young) . Pryor has already dropped WV from consideration and many believe Rodriguez’s departure will cost them top ranked guard Josh Jenkins as well.

Great article on Pryor, DJ Woods, and Jenkins implications. 

In what should been a game that sent the Mountaineers to their first BCS Championship game, West Virginia is now in a turbulent free fall that cost them their coach, possibly some of their staff, and a shot at one of the most electric high school players in the last decade.

Also keep in mind Michigan also hired away WV’s basketball coach this year as well. Mountaineer fans are likely to hold this legitimate gripe of Michigan taking both of their coaches in the same year for year and decades to come.

Ohio State-

Ohio State was in the thick of it for Jenkins and Pryor’s services and are now in strong position to land these highly touted recruits. These additions would really bolster an already stellar class.

On the flip side, Rodriguez at Michigan instead of Miles will change the offensive system, recruiting strategy, and coaching skill sets of their arc rival. 3 out of 4 Buckeye fans believe Rodriguez was an inferior hire than Miles would have been. Only time will tell if this move hurts both Michigan and West Virginia like many are predicting.

Dominos Yet to Fall-

Arkansas-

Bobby Petrino could sure use a tall, strong armed, pocket passer at Arkansas. Mallett is rumored to be mulling over the possibility of leaving Michigan as its apparent he will not be a good fit in Rodriguz’s system. Arkansas is the school a lot of people speculate would be his transfer school of choice. If that rumor does come to fruition, it will be interesting to see how good Arkansas can be with a top tier quarterback prospect

Virginia Tech-

Nobody really knows who will be the new West Virgina head coach. I am going out on a limb and saying it will be Foster the DC for Virginia Tech. This would definitely hurt Hokie program who has been succesful thanks to a combination of Beamer ball special teams and great aggressive defense.

Conclusion-

If West Virgnia wins as they were believed to by 99.5% of the population, its very likely none of the above things happen. We’ll never know as some of the above assertions are pure speculation, but regardless that game had an unbelievable domino affect which is still in progress. National championship game berths, key recruits, possible transfers, and head coaching openings all have been affected by this shocking upset. Only time will tell how large of an impact the WV loss/Pitt win will have, but don’t be shocked if historians really circle this game as historic program changing game for many big time programs.

This weeks commercial of the week goes to the new Johnnie Walker Black label ad. Cool imagery and a smooth song really put you at ease. Although drinking whiskey on the rocks is enjoyed by a minority of viewers, this commercial really does a great job associating Johnnie Walker Black with relaxing/blowing some steam off via a stiff drink.