"Steveo's Salvos" - September, 2007 Edition

"Salvos" is presented as the editorial content of CollegeFootballFan.com focusing on current issues surrounding college football and news about some of the teams on the CFF schedule this year.  Originally from a newsletter, this web site, CollegeFootballFan.com, has evolved. 

So near yet so far - #5 WVU plays #18 South Florida only about an hour from Cousin Kelly's wedding this Friday which ends at 6.  Nobody expects me to be in condition after that although I'm sure dancing in the hot, Florida climate will sweat out all the beer.  I have no car that day.  I need a ride!  I saw all those empty seats at Raymond James on TV last week and figure that this should be an easy ticket for a great game!  This is too tempting!

Who's #1? - For now USC tops the polls, but who's #1 in Scoring, Rushing, and Passing in the NCAA? Here's a hint:  we've seen all three leaders during the first four weeks of the season!  Oklahoma averages 61.5 ppg,  Navy averages 360 rushing yards per game, and Texas Tech averages 521 passing yards per game. We're shooting for the Triple Crown this year!

Look who's in the lead - Wow!  We're doing pretty good in the individual categories, too!  Update: #1 in receiving yards is Michael Crabtree with 775 and #4 is his Texas Tech teammate, Danny Amendola with 522.  Despite a week off, Tiquan Underwood of Rutgers holds on to #5 with 500 yards before this week's game against Maryland.  Most surprising is RU QB Mike Teel didn't slip from #1 with the HIGHEST QB rating in the land at 236.65 despite his bye week, but we saw Sam Bradford of Oklahoma, the guy closing in on his heels,  play last Friday night to come in rated #2.   We saw Sam face #5 QB Paul Smith from Tulsa as we added OU as the 116th notch in our belt.  Then the next day, we saw #11 rated QB Graham Harrell in a shoot-out in his 49-45 loss to Oklahoma State. our #117!  Not his fault though - Harrell is # 1 in passing yards to lead the country now with 1,963 yards. Fourth-ranked Oklahoma leads the nation in scoring average with 61.5 points per game, but the leading scorer in the nation is TTU's Crabtree with 66 points.  He wishes he could have added another six on his final play of last Saturday's game when a slight tip off the defender ended up off his shoulder pad in the end zone. Tough luck for the freshman, but his defense had a much worse day against the Cowboys.   Ray Rice of RU hangs in at #3 in scoring with 60 despite no game last weekend, but on Friday night, we got to see #5 when DeMarco Murray scored two TDs including an 81-yard kick-off return which broke the back of the Golden Hurricane.  2-2 Navy leads all teams in rushing with a 360 average, but DB Ketric Buffin sneaks in to tie 3 others for #2 in the nation in INTs with 4.  Of all surprises to us still, Deonte Jackson, a Soph RB from Idaho moves up to #3 nationally in rushing with 577 yards.   It will be interesting to see if he's still up there on Oct. 27 when we see his team and Nevada become our two final teams to reach The Goal as #118 and #119!

Boys of the Fall - In recent years, we've enjoyed many contacts at games with friends whose daughters have been affiliated with some of the schools we've gone to see play.  Megan Murren worked for the publicity dept at Auburn, Whitney Reigel got us a connection at Maryland where she plays softball, Allyssa Ciesla got us to a play-off at Wilkes College last year where she also plays softball, and even our sister-in-law, Jill Koreivo, an alum at UCLA, went to a game with us there.  This year, it's the boys' turn.  We'll see a second cousin, Robert Keyes, play OT for D-III College of New Jersey.   We're seeing Tulsa host Oklahoma complements of the Pistoia family in Long Beach, CA who are good friends out there with our brother Chris.  Tyler Pistoia is a a WR for the Golden Hurricane who isn't getting much playing time yet this year, but we plan to get out there to Tulsa again when he starts seeing more action.  Last year, we saw Jon Hermann play center for Delaware.  His Dad is a fellow Juniata classmate.  We look forward to seeing Jon play again during his senior year.  We'll also plan to see Bucknell play featuring a former HS classmate's son starting for the Bison of the Patriot League.

Heard it here first (RU-tude)- We said several years ago that if Rutgers ever started winning, look for the obnoxiousness to come from the fans in New Brunswick.  AD Mulcahy is already offering apologies to the Naval Academy for some of the chants by the fans.  We were there, and we saw RU fans pointing to the small group of Midshipman there chanting profanities at them.  Keep it at the pro games, children! Certain factions including the media are on the fans cases for doing this to guys who will be stepping on to a battle field for them in a couple of years to keep terrorists from blowing up buildings here at home.  We also remember though hearing the story three years ago when RU was not cooperating with Navy at the pre-game schedule before the game in Annapolis, a sign of disrespect coming from the team and the coaching staff.  If anyone should be humble after many years of futility, it should be the Rutgers program.  Norfolk State?  Don't forget recent losses to Villanova and New Hampshire.  At least Michigan lost to a potential three-time national champion at that level. 

"Oh, Darling!" - We blew it on our trip to the Auburn-Kansas State game.  The next day when we were at the Mets-Braves game at Turner Field, our gracious hostess Megan Murren who works for the Braves PR department, told us that evening that she happened to be talking to Keith Hernandez and Ron Darling of the Mets broadcast team after seeing us when she went back to work.  Regretfully, she didn't tell us that she may see them because had we known we would have had her invite Ron to our Big Tailgate Party this year.  Darling is not only a Yale grad, he played football for the Bulldogs as well.  Our Big Tailgate is planned for Harvard at Yale this year! 

Big 10 going down, and hard! - It looked bad enough for the Big Ten that former # 5, now unranked, Michigan fell to Championship Division Appalachian State and then to Oregon, 39-7, but after reading all the hype about new Minnesota Head Coach Tim Brewster, the Gophers fell in OT at home to middle of the MAC pack Bowling Green and now to the Sun Belt's Florida Atlantic, 42-39.   Iowa then lost to winless Iowa State, 15-13. No one in the conference has much of a win to this point to make the conference look good.  The best may be Ohio State's win over 2-0 Washington at the time.  Wisconsin struggled with UNLV and PSU has beaten three teams with only one win among them.  Maybe the tide will be turning if 3-0 Indiana, Michigan State, and Purdue finish better than expected, but we doubt it.  Kirk Herbstriet was singing the praises of Penn State, but we were not after seeing them beat Notre Dame knowing the Lions were totally untested going into Michigan.  The Irish are terrible and FIU is on the world's longest losing streak and Buffalo has only won three games in the last two seasons, two against Temple who Joe insists is well coached because half the coaching staff played for him at PSU.  If Michigan wins the Big Ten, the conference is going to look mighty pitiful.

Rising Sun?  - The Sun Belt may be seeing the light after all as three teams came up with wins against significant conference foes.  Florida Atlantic not only beat Minnesota as mentioned, but Troy defeated Oklahoma State, 41-23, t take a glimmer off of this week's Saturday game for us.  Arkansas State also came away with a 45-28 win over SMU to make things look even bleaker for the Ponies' bowl chances and Phil Bennett's career at the Dallas school.  Florida International at least didn't get totally humiliated by Miami losing by a score of 23-9.  We plan to see 0-4 UL-Lafayette visit Central Florida for entertainment while in Orlando this week.  We hope the Ragin' Cajuns come in to put up some kind of fight like we did at the pillow fight in '03 when we saw them fall to UL-Monroe in an exciting 45-42 game.

JoePa, don't say we didn't warn you... -  Joe's Lions have lost seven (now eight)  straight to Michigan.  In their first game ever, Appalachian State found a way to beat the Big Ten "bully".  No excuses this year, Joe.  With the ineptitude of the Big 10, it's undefeated or bust!  And you can assuredly expect no compassion from the pollsters if two or three other teams remain unbeaten at season's end. Let's see - Iowa, Wisconsin, undefeated Indiana, Ohio State, and Purdue loom right after this week's game at Illinois.  If you're lucky, you'll see us at the Alamo Bowl.  We're going!

You listening, Joe?  We're not going to tell you again! -You see what happens to Michigan and Minnesota and it sends out two messages: 1.) You can't win no matter what you do against an opponent you should easily beat on paper.  FIU, Buffalo, Temple, and Coastal Carolina don't win you any points if you win, but if you lose...well, goodbye ranking. 2.) When one of your primary conference foes loses in a game like that, your entire conference gets the rap.  Make sure you play and beat a few good non-conference teams to maintain your own rep and to avoid being dragged down by your conference foes' ineptitude. 3).  If you don't face any challenges for the national title before your conference slate, how do you expect your team to be ready for must-win conference games.    Start talking to Pitt and RU or somebody else, Joe, like Texas, USC, or Oklahoma, but stop booking all those pansies like Coastal Carolina and Arkansas State and Syracuse! And look what an 0-3 team can do by beating a big favorite like Louisville.  They're in no-vote land with the Wolverines.  Delaware State beat Coastal, and we like the Hornets, but DSU doesn't belong on a field with PSU.  Besides, these games are boring!  Once is alright, but three or four games like these stink!  There are no national implications in any of these games!  The Notre Dame win will mean nothing in the end this year.

Hot seats! - Well, we all know about the heat now turning up on Lloyd Carr.  Will he make it through the season now?   How about JoePa now?  Greg Robinson got a bit of redemption with the Louisville win this week.  Can he keep it going?  We're worried about Phil Bennett at SMU, too.  The well-liked coach at SMU has overcome some personal tragedies, but patience may be running out after his Ponies fell to 1-3.  Charlie Weis?  He won with Tyrone Willingham's recruits, but his own sure aren't filling in the voids quickly enough.

Navy-Pitt renewed -  Plans are underway to possibly catch another key Navy game when the Mids meet Pitt (2-2) at Heinz Field on Wednesday, October. 10.  It's fun to watch Navy (2-2) confuse BCS teams with their unique option-oriented offense.  They have to add a few wrinkles to be successful however to compensate for lack of an arm on their starting QB.  Speaking of hot seats, Dave Wannstedt of Pitt might be sitting on one with the proud Pitt program.  We saw the Mids fall to Pitt, 13-11, with the great RB Tony Dorsett at Annapolis in 1974.

Change in plans - Pee Wee football games had to be figured into our schedule this year, but we didn't take too big a hit on our college schedule.   Now that we know our Pee Wee schedule, we changed the Big Tailgate Party from Yale at Princeton to Harvard(1-1) at Yale(2-0) on November 17.  Early indications are that the masses are excited! 

Sweep! -  The Red Hawks of Montclair State not only play in the competitive NJAC conference with Rowan and Cortland State, this year they scheduled three tough non-conference games to start the season. They finished 3-0 to start the season now. MSU opened with a 14-7 win at Wilkes who we saw lose to Rowan in the second round of the playoffs last year.  It was the Colonels only loss of the season when they fell in the final two minutes of play after costly fumbles deep in their own territory.  They finished 11-1.  Springfield finished 10-2 last season also losing in the second round to St. John Fisher, 27-21. We watched the Red Hawks defeat the #9 Pride in a fiercely contested battle, 33-30.   Last week, Montclair traveled to 3-0 Wesley College, ranked #7, who finished last season 13-1, losing only in the semi-final round to national runner-up Wisconsin-Whitewater, and beat them 27-26.  MSU is now #16 in D-3.  They have interesting games left on their schedule including next week's game against Cousin Robert Keyes and The College of New Jersey.  Cortland State looms in three weeks followed by #20 Rowan. The Hawks played three out of conference teams with a total record of 34-4 last season, and unless you win the national championship, every team has at least one loss.  In D-1A, this is the equivalent of opening against USC, Ohio State, and LSU!  What school at that level has the guts to do that today?  We're glad we got the chance to see them play Springfield. WE hope to see them again in post-season action.   Go Hawks! 

Pride Bowl -    The Pride Bowl has been played annually for the last four years between "Sprint Football" teams of Army and Navy in Newark, NJ.  Sprint Football is a league of intercollegiate teams who play against one another with a 172-lb. weight limit.  The Bowl is played to raise funds for college scholarships for the children of Newark, NJ and is the sole fundraiser for Project Pride.  We've always had conflicts attending in the past, but his year's game will be played on Sunday, October 7, at Kean University in Union, NJ between defending league champ Cornell and Navy (even though the Jets play the Giants that same day!).  Last year, Big Red (Little Red?) beat Army and Navy to take the title from both for the first time in years.  It should be fun and exciting, and it's for a good cause.  Festivities begin at 1:15pm.  Tickets cost $20.  It will be an  appetizer of sorts as we may see the Bowl Division Mids face Pitt on Oct. 10 and will definitely be in Annapolis on the 20th for the Wake Forest game.

Arizona State Watch - We predict that ASU will play the spoiler roll with the upset of USC this year.  The Sun Devils are now 4-0 and ranked #23 with a 44-32 comeback win over Oregon State after trailing 19-0 in the first period.  Don't forget, you heard about the "upset" here first, and at the beginning of the season.

"Football's Dirtiest Programs" - Pete Holiday presented an article on the Fan House Sportsblog website depicting the ten most corrupt college football programs over the past ten years.  Points were awarded for criteria such as unethical conduct, lack of institutional control, probation, and post season bans among other issues.  The winners (losers?) were: 1. Texas Tech  2. Oklahoma  3. Texas A&M  4. Alabama                 5. Kentucky  6. California  7. Washington  8. Auburn  9. Oklahoma State  10.  Miami (F.).  We plan to see four of these play this year including #1, #2, #8, and #9.  All play in games to finalize The Goal.  We'll see #1 play at #9, but #9 Oklahoma State might be ranked much higher if ticket prices were taken into consideration!  We'll see #8 (sorry, Charlie) play to add Kansas State.  We'll see #2 visit Tulsa the night before we see #1 visit #9!

On a more positive note - Pete Fiutak of CollegeFootballNews.com rates the 100 greatest finishes since 1970.  His criteria requires a last play or last drive, meaningful game, and other considerations.  We saw one - the 28-26 Syracuse win in 1998 over VA Tech when Donovan McNabb led the Orange in their final drive, converted a fourth down, puked a few times, and on fourth down rolled right and threw left to his leaping TE Stephen Brominski for the game-winning TD as time expired.  It was an exciting game with big plays from the beginning, and we sat right above the end zone to see the game winning play from a great vantage point!  When it comes to great finishes though, nothing can beat our streak of eight consecutive games all decided in the last minute of play in 2003 between October 4 and November 22.  Granted, the streak included an Ivy League rivalry and a D-3 playoff game, but every game was great football!