2012 Hall of Famers - Two of this year's inductees stand out in our minds.  In 1989, we watched Ty Detmer lead BYU his sophomore season over Navy in a 31-10  at Navy-Marine Corps Memorial Stadium on their way to No. 22 in the country. That day, he completed 26 of 35 for 353 yards, 2TDs, and no INTs.  WR Matt Bellini scored two TDs via the pass and two on running plays.  Four years earlier, we saw Bellini tally 111 yards on nine catches including two TDS in the Kickoff Classic from another BYU Hall of Famer, Robbie Bosco.  Detmer finished his career with 15,031 yards and 121 TDs.  He is the fifth BYU QB to enter the Hall of Fame.  We saw Syracuse's Art Monk back in 1979 twice when we watched SU play two "home games" at The Meadowlands when The Carrier Dome was being built.  Monk scored a 38-yard TD catch and made a tremendous leaping catch on the subsequent two-point conversion in a 24-14 win over West Virginia led by QB Oliver Luck, current WVU AD and father of the first pick of this year's NFL draft, Oliver Luck.   A few weeks later versus Penn State, we watched Monk catch six passes in a 35-7 loss.  With his catches, he became SU's all-time leader in pass receptions that day.  Already an NFL Hall of Famer, his entry onto the College Football Hall of Fame seems way overdue.

Another Trojan gift? - "Beware of Greeks bearing gifts." The city of Los Angeles handed over control of the dilapidated L.A. Coliseum to the University of Southern California.  It's one of the stadiums still on our wish list, but only if we get to see the Trojans play Notre Dame or UCLA in the future.  We hope that the school will make the improvements so that we can enjoy the revamped historical stadium originally built to host the Olympics.

Bowl wishes - After our BCS Championship game this season, we came up with a list of remaining bowl games that we'd still like to attend. We question if all of them will continue to operate for the long-term, will the conference contracts remain, and how significant will each game be?   We have a desire to see some of the more historical bowls that offer games in some places we haven't been to yet.  Our wish list: 1.) Gator Bowl, Jacksonville, Big 10 vs. SEC; 2.) Capital One Bowl, Orlando, Big Ten vs. SEC; 3.) Chick-Fil-A, Atlanta, SEC vs. ACC; 4.) Sun Bowl, El Paso, TX, ACC vs. PAC 10; and 5.) Independence, Shreveport, LA, ACC-MWC.  We're leaning to the Belk Bowl in Charlotte this season as it's played the same day as the Military bowl this year and we've been there three times.  We've seen all the other major bowls at least once.  As far as others we haven't seen, they can discontinue them as far as we're concerned except maybe the Hawaii Bowl.  It's just too far for us to go during the  holidays.

Whatever happened to team work?  - It sure isn't the example all these school emulate for their young athletes. It's all about the money.  Now Florida State considers the Big 12.  Maybe Miami or Clemson will, too.  UConn and Louisville are rumored to be looking at the ACC.  Why?  Money.  If all these schools just banded together under the organization of the NCAA, it seems to me that they'd have a lot more power to get what they all need  instead of of jumping from conference to conference.  The NCAA has just relinquished too much of the power they wield but delegating it to schools, conferences, and ESPN.  The NCAA has just not had the strong leadership needed to make this work for their membership as a whole.  It seems like it's now just every team, or every conference, for itself. 

Draft notes - Trips to Florida, South Carolina, and Germany these last few weeks have me a little behind, but it's a slow time in college football as we await the preseason publications to start piecing together this year's predictions, so here's a little reflection on some of the players we saw in previous seasons and how they fared in the draft.  CB Stephon Gilmore of South Carolina was the highest player we saw get drafted No. 10 by the Buffalo Bills. DE Bruce Irvin of West Virginia went five picks later to the Seahawks.  We don't remember much about him on defense in the Orange Bowl as it was the WVU offense that rambled for 70 points in the 70-33 romp over Clemson.  The guy we really liked chosen at No. 18 by the Chargers was Gilmore's teammate, DE Melvin Ingram.  A comment was  made about his detriment having short arms.  We see him overcoming that being long on heart, something Mel Kuiper, Jr.  seems not to take into account. We had hoped that the Jets would have selected him earlier to see him play more often in our area.  The first three picks we had seen in 2011 all performed in big wins we watched over Clemson.  A surprise to us was another DE landed by the New England Patriots at No. 21, Syracuse DE Chandler Jones.  We just didn't see anything impressive last season when we saw the Orange beaten by USF ,33-17, but if the Patriots saw a No. 1 in him, who are we to argue?  OT Riley Rieff of Iowa was the final first round pick we saw when his team struggled against a tough Penn State defense in a 13-3 loss last season.  Iowa's offensive line dominated no one along the PSU line that day, but the Detroit Lions watched him more than we did and selected him at No. 23.   His reputation from the previous season preceded him.  As far as Penn State players, DT Devon Still was the first to go at No. 53 overall to Cincinnati.  G Johnnie Troutman went to the Chargers and defensive stalwarts DE Jack Crawford and LB Nate Stupar went to Oakland to bolster the Raiders' D.  Clemson DE Andre Branch was chosen in Round 2 by the Jags while TE Dwayne Allen who impressed us especially against SC was chosen in the third by the Colts to team up with QB Andrew Luck, No.1 pick overall out of Stanford.  Miami F.,  whom we saw fall to Maryland in last season's 1A opener, had six players drafted as did South Carolina.  The Giants finished the first round selecting junior RB Ryan Williams of Virginia Tech.  Surprised but happy to see the Giants improve their running game, I had seen him score two TDs in my 2010 1A opener when Boise State defeated  the Hokies, 33-30, in a come from behind victory led by QB Kellen Moore.  That's something I don't understand. Here's a QB that went 50-3 as a starter.  Many players around him got drafted, but he's the guy that held the Broncos together. He ended up signing as a free agent with Detroit.  Despite his physical stature, look at his stats, his composure, his accuracy, and his leadership capabilities that got his team 50 wins in four years.  Last year, I also saw Jake Locker  of Washington. Big, strong, but a leader of a loser who had and inaccurate arm and who was slow on his feet despite what draft analysts said what they saw.  He was earmarked as the top QB pick of 2011.  I'll take Moore over him any day.  We'll see who makes his mark based on past performances as opposed to physical stature.  I think Moore has the guts and demeanor to make a big mark somewhere in the NFL.  I'm still trying to figure out why people think so highly of Locker.

Keep it on the field - "Trailing, 21-17, early in the second period with the ball at the West Virginia one-yard line, Clemson's Andre Ellington plunged into the line for a supposed Clemson go-ahead touchdown, but Mountaineer DB Darwin Cook stripped the ball from him within a tangle of bodies and raced 99 yards to the opposite end to the field for a WVU TD to instead extend the Big East's champs lead, 28-17." This was the turning point I witnessed in WVU's 70-33 record-setting 70-33 thumping over Clemson in last season's Orange Bowl.   The sad new is now that I read in ESPN.com that Cook and a teammate were caught stealing Gatorades and Doritos on a local Morgantown convenience store.  These young guys have to learn to avoid such stupid, tedious situations.  They are under a microscope now.  For a few dollars worth of junk food, it's really worth the risk of losing tens of thousands of dollars worth of free education and football that will improve their lives whether in the sport or elsewhere?   We can only hope that there's a lesson learned here, and that both players will turn their lives in the right direction if they are given a second chance.  If not, maybe they will never learn. Keep the thievery on the field where it's a good thing.  Stop the thievery off the field where it does no one any good.

Tales on the radio - We had another good radio interview this past month with Pete Spadora on his show "Spadora on Sports" on WNER in Watertown, NY.  Pete enjoyed reading  Tales from the Tailgate immensely.  He wants to talk again during the season and we look forward to it - maybe live from one of our tailgate parties! Other great support and return invitations have come from Richard Miller of "Miller on Sports" on Radio 600 AM in Jacksonville, Fl;  from Jim LeCorchick and Chris McDonald out in Erie, PA;  from Dave Scheetz on 1480 WHBC-AM Radio out on Canton, Ohio;  Bill Rogan at KNUS-FM Radio on his "Artificial Turf Show" in Denver where he asked me to be one of his pollsters for his Weekly Top 17 next season; and Chris Schmouder on ESPN Radio, Valley Sports Live 92.3 FM, WVSL in Selinsgrove, PA, where he hosted me live on their Friday night show before the Penn State Blue-White game.  They all enjoyed the book and their well prepared interviews because they read it made for some fun radio interviews.