Week 4 HS Analysis

Northern Bedford traveled to Williamsburg last Friday to face the winless Blue Pirates. That winless part? It didn't change as my Panthers moved to 4-0 on the season with the victory, 30-12. Now for the game coverage... NB recovered a Williamsburg fumble on the first series of the game, but they were unable to capitalize on their first drive, going 3 and out. When Williamsburg got the ball back, the NB defense drove the Pirates back into the endzone for a safety. Score: NB 2, Williamsburg 0. After the free kick back to us, we aired it out on a long pass play for a touchdown around the 4:18 mark of the 1st quarter. Score: NB 9, Pirates 0. Williamsburg went 3 and out on their next drive and lined up to punt, but the snap was botched and resulted in good field position for NB at the Williamsburg 15 yard line. 3 and out followed and we lined up to kick about a 29-30 yard field goal, but the attempt was no good to close out the 1st quarter. An NB sack forced the Pirates to go 3 and out on the first drive of the 2nd quarter. NB then scored on a 17 yd. TD run at a little over 9 minutes to go up by 16 points. Williamsburg still couldn't put anything together again, and ended up punting. NB still wasn't done before the half and capped a 12 play drive with a TD at the 53 second mark to make the score 23-0 at the half. A mostly uneventful 3rd quarter came to an end with a bang as Williamsburg scored its first points of the night that were set up by a great-looking 40 yd. pass play. The extra point was blocked by NB and made the score 23-6 heading into the 4th quarter. Williamsburg seemed to have been given some life when they picked off a NB pass at 10:33 left to go. Williamsburg almost lost the opportunity with a fumble, but they were lucky and recovered it. They stalled yet again, tried on 4th down, but failed. NB stalled on a lackluster drive and gave the ball back quickly. We put the clamps down one more time for a TD run at 3:28 to make the score 30-6. Williamsburg gave it their all and came away with another TD at 1:23 and tried for the 2pt. conversion, but they were denied to all but end the game. Final score: Northern Bedford 30, Williamsburg 12. Tussey won at Everett convincingly....They play Mo Valley next, we have Claysburg at home.

Week 3 HS Preview

Week 4 of the high school football season has arrived. Northern Bedford heads to Williamsburg this Friday to take on the 0-3 Blue Pirates. The game shouldn't be close and I look for NB to beat them by at least 30 points. The Blue Pirates haven't exactly challenged us in the last couple of years as far as I can remember. I'm growing more and more excited about Bedford County's traditional rivalry, the Backyard Brawl. Tussey has proven they may present a challenge for us, but it's nothing we can't handle. Everett travels to Tussey tomorrow and if I can't hitch a ride to Williamsburg, I might go down to Saxton just to see how good they really are. We still have another game yet to prepare for them, though. Claysburg is Oct.1, Homecoming. Last year Tussey stole one from us at home. I think we'll get 'em thinking twice about us the next two weeks, then once we march down there to their house and beat them like in 2008, we're back on top of the always great local rivalry. Go Panthers!!!

Week 3: College FB Analysis

Wow. Is it just me, or is the Big East really looking bad this year? The Big East is somewhat respected, and very much more capable of doing what they're not given credit for. This year may not be the year to silence the critics. Cincy hasn't lived up to the hype, losing to Fresno State and NC State, both winnable games. It won't get easier either, facing Oklahoma this week. UConn may not have started out the right way, losing to Michigan and Temple, but I think they will bounce back against Buffalo this week. The Huskies can probably kiss the Top 25 goodbye. The losses have set them back too far, unless they win every game until the end of the season. Don't write them off just yet...Michigan survived an upset scare by UMass, winning 42-37. UMass is a very good FCS team, though. Somebody could get surprised by them. Arkansas needed to prove they could contend in the SEC, and did just that by beating Georgia 31-24 to stay undefeated. Florida State beat BYU in a sort of rivalry game, 34-10. Oregon crushed Portland St. 69-0, to remain a top title contending team. Michigan beat ND on a trick play to stay undefeated and win, 34-31, in OT. In perhaps the game of the week, Arizona upset Top 10 Iowa. I saw the game, and was very impressed with the Arizona offense. It takes a lot to defeat Ricky Stanzi and the high-powered Iowa Hawkeyes. Nevada and Colin Kaepernick took care of Cal, 52-31. Alabama beat Duke to remain on top of all the National polls. Nebraska took care of top NFL prospect Jake Locker's Washington Huskies, 56-21. Clemson and Auburn renewed an old rivalry, Auburn winning in a shootout in OT, 27-24. Boise State trampeled Wyoming 51-6 to stay in the running for a national title berth. Pitt's had a bye week to rest up to play Miami (FL), but I still think Miami wins big, dropping Pitt to 1-2; same as UConn right now. UConn beats Buffalo, 2-2; better than Pitt. :) Miami 45, Pitt 10; UConn 38, Buffalo, 14.

Week 1 and 2

I'm pretty surprised at the first few weeks of football. Some games were predictable, some so-so and some downright painful to watch. I'll start with HS football. I'm set up with my own seat in the NB press box, so I get to make my true sports reporting debut. I didn't get as many notes as I wanted because it was a big game for NB vs. Glendale and everyone from the local media was there in the box and it was quite crowded and only my first game of the season, so I tried taking some mental notes, but I had a hard time remembering them so I'll just give my opinions on the game. I promise I'll have some good notes for next week. The game was highly anticipated and was a matchup of a couple of the top teams in the ICC. NB started out with a great drive and would've been stalled if not for a costly Glendale penalty. NB scored on the drive I believe. Glendale wasn't fazed thought and quickly fired out a pass and outran the NB defenders to make the score 7-6 after missing the extra point. The Panther running game was very strong, trampling Glendale. The passing game wasn't really on display except for a few plays here and there, but they also showed their stuff. At one point I remember NB picking off what might've been a touchdown in the endzone right before halftime I think. As the game wore on, Glendale wore down due to the dominant Panther defense. At the very end of the game, Glendale QB Tyler Jenny rifled a pass to the endzone. It was surprisingly caught and made the final score of the game 28-18 and made NB 2-0 heading in to a Week 3 game with Everett. The Warriors shouldn't be a problem. College football was pretty fun to watch. In Week 1, Boise beat VT, most other high profile teams played cupcakes, but UConn and Pitt played respectable opponents in Michigan and Utah. UConn was favored to beat UM, but the defense couldn't stop UM QB Denard Robinson and they lost 38-10. Pitt also lost but by a smaller point total. Utah won on a field goal to win 24-21. Week 2 was muuuuch more fun. VT played FCS team James Madison. HOKIES WIN 72-0!!! Nope. James Madison handed VT a shocking loss, 21-16. Florida State was throttled by Oklahoma after many thought was a winnable game for FSU after a poor showing by OU vs. Utah State in Week 1. Ohio State forced Miami QB Jacory Harris into throwing 4 picks en route to a 34-26 win by OSU. West Virginia almost fell victim to in-state rival Marshall. UConn wiped out Texas Southern 62-3 to bounce back from the Michigan loss, and Michigan edged Notre Dame 28-24.

Why I Love (And Hate) Preseason Football

Preseason football: What comes to mind when you see that? The beginning of another great football season? Fall? Who cares? Well, all of these can pretty much describe my feelings towards preseason football. Sure, we've been all dying for football season to start, and I'll be the first to admit I'll take preseason football over none at all, but something about it gives me a 'boring' vibe. First, I'll explain why I love it... ROOKIES!!!! The preseason is a great time to see how your favorite college players are doing in the pros, or for that matter, just comparing them against other rookies. Most of the time, rookies aren't first-team offense or defense, so they won't play much during the season, barring an injury. Second, it can be quite entertaining watching players compete for roster spots, even though starters are mostly decided already. Third, its great to see how the bottom-dwellers have improved (or gotten worse). You can see how the stars of the league react to new teams, players, coaches, etc. So you get my point. Now, why I hate it. Injuries. Seems like someone always gets hurt in the preseason. This year's big injury was Elvis Dumervil. The starters don't play much for safety reasons but it still should be a little more entertaining considering we've been starving for football all summer. When you do get a player that does play for more than a few series, they take them out right in the middle of a great drive or defensive possession. You think you'll get to see some action, then you get a stalled drive or a blown defensive stand. Either way you view it, its still football!

The Conference Carousel

While the title of the article suggests otherwise, it's not all fun and games with conference realignment. Just when you thought the whole thing was over, Nevada and Fresno State have chosen to leave the WAC and join the Mountain West. It's a good move for both schools. Both programs are established as up and coming football teams, and it gives Nevada and Fresno the chance to compete against better competition. The WAC is basically waiting to collapse with only 6 football member schools. BYU was considering leaving the MWC for the WAC in all sports except football, and they planned to become an independent in football, but that idea seems to have lost some steam. Hawaii needs to leave the WAC, maybe for the Pac-10 if they ever consider inviting another team, but it's unlikely right now. The MWC is a better option in the short term future. The WAC should separate and let the remaining schools find another conference, become independent, or a drastic measure: move back down to FCS competition. It could provide the best long term solution for the members if any more teams left and the WAC dissolves. It's fun to speculate, but I was hoping that this shifting would've been done a while ago; it's old news.

Coaches' Poll

The USA Today Coaches' Poll came out a couple weeks ago. No real surprises. Alabama was No. 1, Ohio State No. 2, Florida No. 3, Texas No. 4, and Boise State rounds out the Top 5. Pretty close to what I thought they'd be, but Florida's too high along with Texas. I was kinda surprised Boise didn't crack the Top 3; I'd put Boise at No. 3 and Florida back at No. 5. Surprised UConn wasn't in the Top 25. I did get to see the number of points a few teams who just barely made the cut had. UConn was No. 33 in the points race with 40 points. The way the UConn schedule sets up, they could possibly be 5-0 by the time they travel to Rutgers. A win there and they could be 7-0 by the time West Virginia comes to East Hartford. I have a sleeper team in the Top 10 that could really do some damage...Iowa. Iowa has beaten Penn State the last 2 years and probably will again this year being PSU is a home game for them. They could beat Ohio State because OSU is also a home game for Iowa. If they win those 2 games, not much else is standing in the way of them winning the Big 10 title and going to the Rose Bowl. I'm so excited for football season :)