2004 NCAA Football season (1 Viewer)

[Ralph Summa]

I was at Rentschler Field on Saturday and UCONN fever is an epidemic! The stadium is beautiful and it should be a fun year. I spent three football seasons in Morgantown, WV, which was my first personal experience with Division 1-A football. At WVU, football is a religion, it's insanity and tradition is everywhere. From the band, to the tailgating to the bars you hit afterward. There are a very few traditions associated with UCONN football, but it will be fun being a part of the creation process. I think they have a long way to go, but the program just landed three recuits that were also recruited by BC and that has never happened before. Things are moving in the right direction. I feel like I did when Jim Calhoun took over the basketball program. There's a lot of hope an promise regardless of what happened in the Indiana game.

I'll wait to see how they do against BC and NC State before I put them in the top 50 though. It was kind of neat to see them on the poll though.

Ralph

 

[ThomasC]

Oh, and I think Penn State will BEAT Ohio State this year. PSU's Austin Scott will make everyone forget about Clarett.

Oh Patrick, did you forget that OSU has a defense?

 

[Patrick Larkin]

Oh Patrick, did you forget that OSU has a defense?

Which will be interesting to see - if a OSU can stop Scott. We'll see. They definitely stopped Larry Johnson last year but that game was right THERE for Penn State's taking...

 

[Steve Clark]

And if Ohio State is smart they will kick Maurice Clarett's Ass off campus and darn quick.

It was just announced today by Coach Tressel that Clarett can no longer practice with the team. Tressel now categories the number of games that Maurice will be suspended for as "significant". He said that Maurice will be held out for an indefinite period until more information comes in from the NCAA.

Wow! This was supposed to be the week that the University and NCAA would correspond back and forth as to the term of the suspension. This appears to be a step backward. You now wonder is there is more dirt on Maurice than previously known by the University. If he does not play this year, I am starting to doubt if he will ever be back at OSU.

 

[Patrick Larkin]

Can someone fill me in on the Clarett issue. From quick research, I see that he was given oral exams in a class before the bowl game and that some items were stolen from him that have questionable value for a college student. Which issue has him facing a suspension - or am I missing something?

 

[Scott Merryfield]

From quick research, I see that he was given oral exams in a class before the bowl game and that some items were stolen from him that have questionable value for a college student. Which issue has him facing a suspension - or am I missing something?

I think both incidents are under investigation. The "stolen property" incident involved several thousand dollars worth of electronic equipment being stolen out of a vehicle that Clarett had "borrowed" from a dealership. Kind of ironic, since this kid supposedly did not have enough moeny to buy an airline ticket to fly home for a friend's funeral last season.

Clarett appears to be one of those kids who's a great athlete but has no business being in college. Every big time college program has seen such individuals. I would be surprised to see him challenge the NFL Draft eligibility rules next year.

 

[Dome Vongvises]

I say let him (Clarett) go to the NFL. If he wants to take that risk, so let it be.

 

[Ralph Summa]

I'm thinking about picking up one of these for the UCONN/BC game.

 

[Carlo_M]

My problem with Auburn's tactic vs. USC was that there were too many gimmick runs (i.e. delayed handoffs, draw plays, misdirection, counters, etc.). USC's defensive strength is their speed. But Auburn had beefier big boys. If they were going to try and run the ball, they should have run the old USC plays - Student Body Right, etc. With all of their O-Line heading that way, with a lead blocking fullback, etc.

USC's defensive speed (and yes they are strong too, but they are also undersized relative to other teams) makes them not susceptible to gimmick (or change of pace/direction) runs. If there's any chance to beat them through the ground, you have to run right at them, between the tackles, with a head of steam.

And USC (smartly) blitzed a lot. It was the first game of the season, and the receivers either weren't used to, or did not read, the blitzes correctly. The two or three times they did, and ran an appropriate hot route (i.e. if the LBs blitz, the receivers run underneath where the vacated LB spots are, because the DBs are in zone/protect to keep from getting burned) the underneath dump was open and Auburn WRs had a couple of nice yards-after-catch runs. But that was few and far between. More often than not Campbell was on his keishter.

Anyway USC was definitely impressive, especially defensively. I will say their offense did about the minimum you could expect though, since the D kept putting them in great field position. A *good* offense would have scored 30+, maybe even 40+ points. Last year's USC offense might have scored 60.

Time will tell whether USC is really this awesome, or if Auburn was this overrated, or if it's a combination of both (more likely).

 

[Shane Martin]

So Carlo, You out there in the UCLA area. How good will they be? I guess we will find out this weekend and in a few weeks when Oklahoma comes knocking.

 

[Carlo_M]

Hey Shane,

UCLA has a chance to be a very surprising team this year...and also a chance to be it's former disappointing self.

Quite frankly there are too many unknowns. The new coaching staff has a rookie head coach, albeit one I think was the right hire (Coach Dorrell). And Bob Toledo didn't leave the cupboard bare (like Lavin did for basketball and Coach Howland - whom I think was definitely the right hire). RB Coach Bienemy has already made his presence felt in recruiting (Maurice Drew was going to CU but then followed Coach B to UCLA) and we are in the running for Adrian Peterson the #1 back in HS (who is also considering Oklahoma).

Toledo's biggest problem was that he mismanaged the team and talent. He didn't know what to do with QB Drew Bennett and had him catching 3rd down passes - Drew ended up playing nearly every down for the Titans last year. Good enough for the NFL and not UCLA? And then there was the JP Losman incident (who graduated HS early just to get to UCLA Spring Ball and then transfered to Tulane and is now the #1 NFL QB prospect in college this year). Meanwhile we had to suffer with Cory DUI Paus. And Toledo, despite winning 20 in a row and coming within minutes of playing for a National Championship in 1998 (lost to Miami in the Hurricane-delayed game) his teams if they weren't in contention for the NC would often fold and unravel after losing their first game.

Coach Dorrell has brought his version of the West Coast offense to UCLA, who has athletes that are actually more in tune to that style of play than Toledo's run/run/deep bomb/trick-play playbook. New OC Axman brings with him the ability to coach young QBs (he coached Tuiasosopo and Pickett at Washington) - and we've got a guy who can become special in Matt Moore. Oh there's another Toledo mistake. He went with Drew "Junior Cory Paus" Olson rather than Moore, who impressed me way more in game situations (I'm a season ticket holder and travel to some away games as well). Paus and Olson both latch on to option 1 on pass routes, maybe go to option 2 if they remember. Moore can make the read down to options 3, 4 and backs in the flat. Oh and he can throw to the TE (Seidman last year went to the NFL and was underutilized his entire career at UCLA). We've got another great TE in Marcedes Lewis. Luckily this new coaching staff saw what I saw and are starting Moore (and don't think I didn't go around my football buddies saying "told ya so!" ) over Olson. He'll make his share of sophomore mistakes, but in the long run he has tremendous upside.

To be honest, I can easily see UCLA going 8-4 or 9-3 this season...or they could go 6-6. Really depends on how the kids react in game situations. We always start late and we get CU after their brutal CSU game, and we still haven't taken a snap. I don't harbor delusions that we'll beat OU (though stranger things have happened). I would hope though that they will play with poise and pride, and would not be surprised if the game were close. The fact that the game is in Norman hurts our young team - you never know how underclassmen will react to a frenzied environment like in OK.

But we do have good assistants (which Toledo, once his good ones left for other places, he never replenished them with established names, I think he didn't want credit to go elsewhere for the team's success) which will only help.

I'm hyped for this season. USC looks pretty dominating, and if UCLA can get its act together, that end-of-the-year game might actually mean something for both teams, which it hasn't in a while!

I think the CU and Illinois games will show what kind of team UCLA is - the biggest improvements always come between games 1 - 2, and 2 - 3. By the time we get to Norman we will be able to tell if UCLA has a chance in hell or if they should just forfeit the game.

 

[Ashley Seymour]

Can someone fill me in on the Clarett issue. From quick research, I see that he was given oral exams in a class before the bowl game and that some items were stolen from him that have questionable value for a college student. Which issue has him facing a suspension - or am I missing something?

Archie Griffin was interviews on the Jim Rome show this morning. Griffin said that the university was still waiting for Clarett to answer a number of questions. Which he appears not willing to do under advice from his council Jim Brown.

 

[ThomasC]

Just get on going to the NFL already, Clarett. You're good, but you're not worth all this.

 

[Ashley Seymour]

Nice game on ESPN tonight, Fresno State 16 Oregon State 14. Oregon State had some thoughts of going 4-0 if they could get by Fresno State. This looks good for our Boise State Broncos who play Oregon State in two weeks. Also in November we will be having a war in Fresno State who are gunning for us after getting beat the last two years.

Fun season shaping up.

 

[Scott Merryfield]

I watched some of that OSU - Fresno game. It looks like Dennis Erickson did not take the thug style of playing with him when he left for the NFL. OSU seemed more intent on taking cheap shots at their opponents than in playing football. Too bad that attitude didn't disappear with Erickson.

 

[Patrick Sun]

I'm shocked at how Wake Forest is playing this season, and they are handling NC State rather easily today.

 

[Shane Martin]

Penn State is getting rather owned right now...Its 27-7 BC in the 4th Quarter..

That and Ohio State is only beating SDSU 16-13 with 10 minutes left.

 

[Dome Vongvises]

There goes NC State...

 

[Shane Martin]

Virginia is about to lose too...

 

[ThomasC]

What an ugly game for Ohio State. Looks like things haven't changed much from last year, but hopefully today was just an off day. The decent defense was able to make up for the offense, but just barely. Krenzel, Heisman trophy candidate? Very unlikely. Hopefully NC State's performance today will be the same or worse as next week's.