Thought I would chime in with some commentary on the bowl games, recruiting news, thoughts on 2008, etc.
Implications of Bowl Games on 2008
As I mentioned earlier this week on my blog, these bowl games will have a big impact on the 2008 pre season rankings. By building up the perception of your team with a big bowl win (LSU last year for example) you can get bumped to the head of the line amongst your peers. Going into bowl season I had two sets of five teams. My top tier for 2008 in no particular order was….
Florida, Georgia, Ohio State, Oklahoma, and USC
With my second tier of top teams being
West Virginia, Missouri, Texas, Illinois, and Virginia Tech
A lot will change these early ranking like who will declare early, how 2008 recruiting wraps up, transfers etc.
However their have been a lot surprises and lop sided victories that will really weigh on perception of some these teams.
USC, Missouri, West Virginia, and Georgia all logged impressive wins while Oklahoma, Florida, and Illinois looked pathetic.
Look for Georgia to jump over Florida in terms of 08 pre season rankings mainly thanks to their Sugar Bowl performance. West Virginia’s win was momentous as the program was and still is in turmoil with Rodriguez leaving, the recruiting class wary of WV, and the WV lawsuit against Rodriguez. The win may have kept the program from completely derailing as I blogged about earlier.
Illinois’ loss was one of the few times fans really saw them all year which will hurt their public perception. For Oklahoma, that Big 12 will be nasty in 2008 so it will be interesting to see how the voters stack up OU, Texas, Mizzou, and Kansas. The middle of the Big 12 will be pretty lethal as well with Texas Tech, Oklahoma State, Kansas State, and Colarado returning some firepower as well.
Tough Road Bowl games for the Big Ten
Weather in Big Ten Country this time of year excludes the region from hosting any big name bowl games. Because of this, Big Team teams hit the road come bowl season in hopes their fans will want to join them in a warmer more touristy destination. However this year the stars lined up for a pretty ridiculous slate of bowl away games.
Purdue vs Central Michigan in Detroit, Michigan (Purdue win a squeeker)
Penn State vs Texas A&M in San Antonio, Texas (Penn State victory)
Illinois vs USC in Pasadena, California (Illinois got torched)
Michigan vs Florida in Orlando, Florida (Michigan beats Florida in best bowl thus far aka the Who Do I hate more bowl)
Ohio State vs LSU in New Orleans (TBD)
Saturday= Recruiting Cram Session
This upcoming Saturday their will be two High school football All American games. This will allow those college football nuts to take a look at the next wave of big talents . The Under Armor All America game will be on ABC at 2PM ET with the more established US Army All American Bowl airing on NBC at 12 ET.
I really hate trying to get excited about next year’s freshmen by looking other “experts” rankings and really poor quality internet videos of highlight plays. These games will give you a glimpse of how these guys stack up against high level competition. Also many of the undecided participants will make a decision live at the games which adds quite a bit of suspense at this game.
I am disappointed as I will be traveling during these games as I wanted to check out a lot of Ohio State commits who are reported to be the most impressive group during practice and the most tight knit bunch after practice for the US Army game.
This game always gives you a handful of names you can be confident will be first round picks down the road. Rivals actually has great All time offense and All time defense participants of late. Tedd Ginn and Chris Wells I believe were MVPS of their respective games.
Rise Mag has a good brief writeup on each game which can be found here.
Intrigue Surrounding Terrelle Pryor Recruitment
Terrelle Pryor is considered by most to be the number one high school player in America and will be playing on Saturday in the US Army game. Pryor has not picked a college and is also considered a top basketball recruit as well. Many compare Pryor to Vince Young with many claiming Pryor will be even better.
Pryor was rumored to be an Ohio State lean with Florida, West Virginia, Penn State, Oregon, Michigan, and Florida in pursuit. Of late Pryor has been very vocal in denouncing any favoring of Ohio State, giving many fan bases a lot of hope they can land the big time recruit. Michigan fans were ecstatic in hearing the news that Pryor actually checked in to Army game hotel wearing a Michigan swearshirt.
However many believe that was just a ploy to annoy his OSU commit friends who he has been rumored to be spending all of time with on and off the field at practice this week. Below is a recent video of him outside of practice. You be the judge.
ScoutTV: USAAB Terrelle Pryor Video Interview
Benkoo.com hitting the road Heading to New Orleans As previously mentioned I will be heading to New Orleans to watch the Ohio State LSU game. I will be devoting a lot of time and efforts to blogging about the experience and my thoughts on the game in the coming days. I am bubbling with anticipation for this great game but am a little worried about being in LSU country.LSU fan’s have earned the reputation of being some of the roughest and agressive fans in all of college football. I really hope that ends up being not the case. Here is one of many examples that were listed on Bucknuts of pretty scary LSU fan behavior.
LSU Athletic Director Urges Better Behavior
I have personally endeared a lot of good and bad fan bases during my college football road trip prime and must say I usually am able to navigate out of trouble and enjoy the game. However its one of the worst things to be harassed, assaulted, and taunted endlessly just because of your college affiliation. Ohio State is no angel either.
Why can’t we all just get along? Here’s too hoping for a peaceful and victorious trip.
