Five Things We Learned

2008-09-10T12:28:09-04:00

2008-09-07T13:36:16-04:00

2008-09-10T06:38:24-04:00

2008-09-09T19:17:13-04:00

AirMoreno

Smyrna 519910

Everyone seems to forget that hitting a 35 yard field goal is not that difficult for a kick team. So I don't see how someone can say that it changed the outcome of the game. 2705159

2008-09-08T22:55:18-04:00

WVUfan

Buffalo 517887

"The more appropriate reaction would be to find whoever devised this asinine rule and put him on national television." Excessive celebration and an instanesous act (without taunting) are different things. Personally, I agree that the official should not have made the call, but he did based on the guidelines that he was directed to follow. Regardless, UW can point to giving up the points and not scoring enough during the game and the kicker should be able to make such a kick. The official made a call. UW gave up the points to require a comeback, made the comeback at the last second, violated a rule and missed a relatively easy kick. If they don't like the rule, don't put yourself in that situation. Or, coaches can revolt against the excessive celebrations their players make to invoke such a rule. Mr. Richt might be a good chair on that committee. (well, other than that he's in the infallible SEC). 2696525

2008-09-08T22:28:36-04:00

WVUfan

Buffalo 517887

Stewart, you're making me tired ... You're not only basing the Big Ten challenge for OSU on Penn State wins over Coastal Carolina and Oregon State, but Wisconsin wins over Akron and Marshall? Come on. Put another way, if WVU beat Akron and Marshall the past two weeks, you would not be telling your readers that WVU was a contender against someone like Ohio State. You'd be arguing that their schedule was weak, blah, blah, blah. 2696300

2008-09-08T22:23:46-04:00

WVUfan

Buffalo 517887

"That the Big East is even worse than the ACC." You argue that the BE has an inherent disadvantage due to size, one would be hard-pressed to make an argument based on performance, and that they may not have any top-performers, but there is no apparent leg up for the ACC. So you're basically arguing that the Big East is "even worse" than the ACC, but that they're limited due to size, have no clear cut performance margin and no "better" performer than anyone in the Big East ... rather, you're just speculating and preaching your anti-Big East agenda. Bottom line ... the Big East has BCS wins over the SEC, ACC, and Big 12 champ over the past three years and the ACC is 0-fer since their raid of the BE conference. Speculate all you want. 2696292

2008-09-08T22:17:10-04:00

WVUfan

Buffalo 517887

"The Nittany Lions' 45-14 rout of Oregon State was eye-opening to say the least. " Really? Beating an 0-1 team by a large margin at home is "eye-opening"? OSU lost to Stanford the week before this game. For Penn State, this isn't "eye opening," it''s expected. 2696281

2008-09-08T19:03:50-04:00

belaircruiser

Heber City 357078

There were plenty of no calls in the game against Washington. I don't heard any crying about that. 2694909

2008-09-08T19:01:28-04:00

belaircruiser

Heber City 357078

I thought Coach Willingham's comments showed an amazing amount of class. He said (or something to this effect), while he didn't think the celebration was all dramatic, the referees really didn't have a choice. They had to throw the flag. While I think Washington would be sort-sighted to get rid of Coach W, his style converted me further. The refs didn't miss the PAT. Mark May and the crew that broadcasted the game said some of the most ignorant things I have ev er heard come out of a broadcast booth. Can we penalize them? 2694906

2008-09-08T18:25:22-04:00

http://img.fannation.com/upload/user_profile/image/516/996/thumb/banner_jan_2005.jpg 7 TX

predut98

Houston 517436

Although he's a sooner fan, I couldn't agree more with sooner guy. The call that was made was the correct call. I too don't want to see the college game become like the show-boating nfl. It shows such a lack of class. And anyone that compares this call to the OU-Oregon game debacle is just ludicrous. 2694743

2008-09-08T17:26:48-04:00

sooner guy

Saint Marys 518529

The rule violated is not stupid, and I'm glad it's in the book. Remember Miami vs. Texas in the Cotton Bowl years ago? I for one DON'T want college football to mimic the NFL in hot-dogging, strutting and ocho-cincoing. And please do not equate the official's act in this game with the travesty (multidimensional) in the Oregon-Oklahoma game a couple of years back. 2694237

2008-09-08T16:44:07-04:00

mexahorn

Houston 518507

agreed the call was judgment call and give that he might have held back given the situation but truth is how is throwoing the ball high up in the air (and it was thrown high up) any different from spiking the ball. I have to believe if he had spiked the ball no one would be complaining about the call yet I can't really say there is much difference. So what I am saying is spking or throwing the ball isn't really taunting the other team but rather its a show of emotion after success but the rule is the rule and the kids know it....otherwise we'd see more spikes....I think. 2693853

<img style="width: 210px; height: 271px; float: right;" src="http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/football/ncaa/images/sweep/PSU.jpg" alt="" width="210" height="271" align="right" />1. That Ohio State's Big Ten schedule will be no cakewalk. The widely-held assumption for some time was that, regardless of Saturday's USC outcome, Ohio State will turn around and steamroll its way through the "weak" Big Ten en route to another BCS title game appearance/controversy. Outside of Ann Arbor, however, there have been noticeable signs of improvement throughout the conference these past two weeks, with Penn State and Wisconsin emerging as viable threats. The Nittany Lions' 45-14 rout of Oregon State was eye-opening to say the least. I would not have guessed that their "Spread HD" would click so thoroughly, so quickly. The Badgers, meanwhile, have shaken off slow starts the past two weeks to bulldoze overmatched foes Akron and Marshall due in large part to the type of relentless power-running game that's become increasingly rare these days. Sept. 13 has been marked on the Buckeyes' calendar for some time, but go ahead and add Oct. 4 (at Wisconsin) and Oct. 25 (vs. Penn State). Keep an eye on Michigan State (Oct. 18) while you're at it. 2. West Virginia hired the wrong coach. I've always been a proponent of patience when it comes to evaluating coaches, so no, I'm not going to slam the door on Bill Stewart three games into his head-coaching career. But events of the past week indicate that WVU had the opportunity to hire one of the hottest head coaches in the country -- and blew it. Three weeks into a frenetic and disorganized search to find Rich Rodriguez's replacement, WVU retained the services of noted consultant Chuck Neinas. As described last week by the <a href="http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/08249/909617-144.stm">Pittsburgh Post Gazette</a>, members of the school's search committee spent the morning of the Mountaineers' Fiesta Bowl game making initial contact with one of the interested candidates identified by Neinas -- only to hand the job to Stewart after the Mountaineers upset Oklahoma. The spurned candidate who never got that call: East Carolina's Skip Holtz, the same man whose team unleashed a 24-3 upset of the Mountaineers on Saturday and who will most likely be standing on the sideline of some lucky BCS-conference school this time next year. 3. That the Big East is even worse than the ACC. ACC-bashing was all the rage following last week's Clemson/Virginia Tech/Virginia embarrassments. Even though the league provided even more fodder for ridicule Saturday with Wake Forest's near-miss against Ole Miss, Maryland's loss to Middle Tennessee and the Hokies' and Cavaliers' 3-0 halftime leads over Furman and Richmond, you'd be hard-pressed to say it's in worse shape than the Big East. The conference already holds an inherent disadvantage due to its small size (eight schools), but it's managed to produce two or three nationally prominent teams these past few years. There might not be any this year. West Virginia, Cincinnati, Rutgers and Louisville have already endured lopsided losses, while Pitt lost to Bowling Green and Syracuse lost to Akron. The only remaining undefeated teams are USF and Connecticut -- and both needed overtime Saturday to dispatch UCF and Temple, respectively. Yeesh. 4. That Jahvid Best will run away in the West. Despite never garnering more than four handoffs in a game last season, Cal fans had been breathlessly awaiting the sophomore's turn as the Bears' primary tailback this season -- and now we know why. Saturday night against hapless Washington State, the 5-foot-10 burner broke off touchdown runs of 86 and 80 yards en route to 200 yards (including another TD) on 14 carries. This came after racking up 277 all-purpose yards last week against Michigan State. Not surprisingly, Best's performances <a href="http://www.mercurynews.com/sports/ci_10401356">are conjuring Heisman talk</a> in Berkeley. We'll have to wait and see on that one, but more importantly, in light of both a solid non-conference win and a 66-3 conference victory -- has Cal has returned from its one-year dip into obscurity? The Bears have finally settled on a quarterback, Kevin Riley, and Best is the explosive threat that DeSean Jackson was supposed to be last year. The only question will be how its defense fares when it goes up against offenses like USC's, Oregon's and Arizona State's. 5. That it truly does stink to be a ref. Poor Larry Farina. The flag-waving official who rained on Jake Locker's parade Saturday has been thoroughly castigated from coast to coast for his decision to call a costly excessive celebration foul on the Washington QB. Like the rest of you, I found the flag entirely unwarranted, especially considering the crucial stage of the game. But after reviewing the evidence, it seems our collective angst is being directed at the wrong party. Despite repeatedly showing a graphic of the rule that quantifies "throwing the ball high into the air" <a href="http://deseretnews.com/blogs/1,5322,19,00.html?bD=20080906">as an unsportsmanlike act</a>, ESPN's talking heads were adamant that the call was wrong. Mark May even tried to say that Locker "flipped the ball over his shoulder." Really? Then how come every time they showed <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ap6Kn0dkbyY">the replay</a>, the ball shot straight into the air and off camera for several seconds? Most estimates placed its trajectory at about 25 feet. That's some flip. It seems to me that Farina, just as he stated, was following the rule he was told to call. The more appropriate reaction would be to find whoever devised this asinine rule and put him on national television. 1224 http://img.fannation.com/upload/user_profile/image/940/61/thumb/mandel_stewart.jpg 2 NY

Stewart Mandel

New York 94361