Weekend Nuggets

I apologize for the lateness of my posts. NYE is a time consuming holiday, so here are a few random observations, most of them bowl intensive, I had over the weekend:

Holiday Bowl : Yeah Ndamukong Suh only had 3 tackles (1 for loss), but for those who watched the game saw that he was subjected to numerous double, sometimes triple teams throughout the game. He was also a big part of a Nebraska defense that was responsible for a measly 6 first downs, 109 yards of offense, and recorded the first Holiday Bowl shutout in 32 years. Suh is one of the most intriguing defensive lineman to enter the draft, and his dominance is so obvious that even Mel Kiper has him ranked #1 overall on his big board.

Capital One Bowl : In a surprising display of Big Ten Pride, the Penn State Nittany Lambs rose to the occasion and defeated LSU in a rain soaked, mud-laden field. While LSU definitely had a hand with their unbelievably poor clock management in the end, Penn State won another bowl game for the corpse of Joe Paterno. The only thing that was really terrible about this game was class act Daryll Clark, doing his best Curt Schilling 1993 World Series imitation, and turning his back to Collin Wagner's winning kick to put PSU ahead for good, because he couldn't handle the stress of the situation. That is bush league garbage. Clark should know that it's important for ALL his teammates to watch the kick, and be supportive no matter what the outcome of the kick is. Not only did Clark show that he doesn't have the nuts to play big time football, but he also showed that he's not above displays of "Hey look at me" in clutch situations. Shame on him.

Gator Bowl : Speaking of corpses, Bobby Bowden and his Free Shoes University Criminoles went out with a victory over West Virginia. The only thing that is memorable of this game is that it showed the short memory of the media. Once again they attempted to deify Bowden, while overlooking glaring academic fraud, shoplifting and shoe deals, along with countless other infractions that have occurred under Bowden's watch. This game only further exemplifies that prostitutes and buildings get classier as they get older. "Eat your heart out Florida State" indeed.

Rose Bowl : In yet another display of Big Ten Pride this weekend the Ohio State Buckeyes defeated the Oregon NikeDucks in this years Rose Bowl. The most notable aspect of this game was the effort shown by the much ballyhooed Terelle Pryor. Coming into the game with a partially torn knee, Pryor went 23 of 37 for 266 yards and 2 TD's. He also orchestrated a key fourth quarter 13 play, 81 yard, 6 minute drive that ensured the victory. It was good to see the Big Ten continue to answer the bell in the bowl games this year, as well as see Pryor start to live up to the sometimes unrealistic expectations that have been thrust upon him. Plus Ohio State needed this win to end a rather humiliating bowl record the past three seasons.

Sugar Bowl : Tim Tebow once again tried to desperately prove to the world that god exists by playing college football at an exceptional level. While he once again failed to prove there is a god, he certainly proved that he will go down as one of the best qb's to ever played college football. Much like Andre Ware, Ty Detmer, Eric Crouch, Chris Weinke, Danny Wuerffel, Gino Torretta, Charlie Ward, Jason White, and Troy Smith, Tebow will get to watch NFL games from his couch like the rest of us in no time. No matter what is actually happening in the bizarre situation that is Urban Meyer, Florida continued to show that they are among the elite of college football.

Dayton Flyers : The Flyers ventured into The Pit against New Mexico, and once again decided to get in their own way, and prevent a victory by playing nervous. It was a shame too, because in this blogs view Dayton definitely had the better team, but were so anxious the first ten minutes that they had to play catch-up the rest of the game. They did manage to get the lead in the second half, but it was quickly squandered by inopportune turnovers and poor shot selection. In the grand scheme of things it wasn't a bad loss since they lost to a team in the top 25. Still though, Dayton must play better than that, and history shows that Brian Gregory is the kind of coach that knows this.