Tag: Hoosiers Football

And now for the Rundown…

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Rundown of Day 1 College Football 2013

August 30th, 2013

The 2013 College Football season is in motion and we celebrated by having over 12 hours of fantastic football.  Incase you missed some of the action or highlights here are our favorite plays, moments or factoids from the Kick-Off of the 2013 Season!

Puke and Rally!

This might be the best and worst moment of the year all wrapped into one.  Jordan Matthews, one of the premier receivers in all of college football and an All-SEC player made a catch coming over the middle late in the Vandy-Ole Miss game, in doing so he got absolutely crushed with a hit on his side by Ole Miss backer Cody Prewitt.  As Matthews tried to get to his feet he was visibly hurt and motioned to the sidelide to come out of the game.  With Vandy in hurry-up mode and not using a timeout, he was able to stand, get to the line of scrimmage for the next play.  After that play, it appeared he was going to make it to the sideline, stopped and went to one knee and that when the vomit came.  After Matthews was done losing his lunch, the training staff took him to the sidelines where he got some water, waited and on the next play, in classic college style Matthews puked ‘n rallied to make a huge catch on 4th and 18 and the game on the line.  Now, the problem we have, is with all of the concern about player safety at all levels of football, the Vandy staff shoul’ve never let Matthews return so quickly.  There is no way they could tell what condition the player was in.  They needed to let him stay on the sideline for a couple more minutes, while they professional assessed his situation but they didn’t and so we got one of the top plays of the season on day one.  Here is a link from SBNation showin the Rundown of this one!     http://www.sbnation.com/college-football/2013/8/30/4674808/jordan-matthews-catch

 

Was that the Hoosiers or the Ducks?

In a game that only fans in Indiana watched or crazies like us watch, Indiana put an Oregon style offensive beat down to Indiana State with a final score of 73-35.  After the game, the Hoosier players were upset, why? Because Indiana was within 3 points of tying or beating the all-time record for points scored in school history of 76.  Now, normally we don’t agree with running the score up but when you are that close to a historical marker, kick the field goal, tie the record and give your boys something they will have for some years to come in the record book.  Now, Indiana is our pick for the surprise team in the country, picking them at 9 wins, now we know this was a gimmie game but the Indiana offense looked like an experienced one firing on all cylinders, now they just have to stay healthy.

 

USC Might be the Boys of Troy…

This one is hard for us to swallow, we picked USC to win the PAC 12 South division but if they can’t figure out how to run an offense they might be finishing behind ASU, UCLA, and Utah.  Before we get carried away reading too much into an opening day road game to Hawaii, let’s look at the positives.  USC’s defense will keep them in games, at the start of the game USC looked like a classic team that thought they were going to be able to show up and win the game, it took until almost halftime for them to figure out that they were going to have to take it and no one was giving them anything.  The side of the ball that changed the game was defense, they started to make plays on the ball getting 4 int. and holding the Hawaii QB to 16-41.  We liked USC because they have one of the easiest schedules in the PAC 12 but if they expect to compete we are guessing they are going to have to bring a lot more then what they had in Hawaii.

 

GAME OF THE NIGHT!!!

No it’s not Ole Miss-Vandy for all you East Coaster Bias out there, it was Fresno State-Rutgers without a shadow of a doubt.  If you missed that game because your mom wouldn’t let you stay up past your bedtime, we urge you, if you are a real college football fan, to find that game and watch it start to finish.  It had more lead changes than a NASCAR race and more scores than Robin Thicke.  It was from start to finish one of the best games and even had a classic OT finish of the away team going for the two-points to win!!!  Freakin Classic, a QB making his outside Heisman Campaign going 52-73 456 yards and 5 touchdowns, in Derek Carr and a Rutgers team saying we might have some holes but we can score too, Nova for Rutgers also threw for 5 TD’s.  This game should be on ESPN Classic sometime soon, look it up and enjoy.  We’re just thankful that Fresno made it out with the win, that game is going to do wonders for their confidence and we have them winning the Mountain West over Boise State… 

2013 @B1GFootball Conference Preseason Top 5* Predictions

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Big10Logo_Divisions

When the Big Ten realigned and added Nebraska, it appeared that they would be the most complete conference behind the SEC.  However, in a flash Penn State imploded as a football powerhouse, Ohio State was faced with violations, Michigan appeared to be in a longer rebuilding process and Michigan State couldn’t overcome the larger hurdles.  This left Wisconsin to go for 3 consecutive B1G Titles, a feat that seemed unbelievable, then they lose their coach to the SEC.  So where does this leave the conference now…  The B1G has huge upside this year but the depth of the conference is questionable and could haunt a potential BCS contender.  Without further discussion, let’s get too it… Here is the Rundown for the Top 5* Teams in the B1G Conference for 2013!

 

1. The Ohio State Buckeyes 11-1 (Leaders Division Champion)
Last season the Buckeyes escaped two overtime games against Purdue and Wisconsin with victories, they beat Michigan by 5 and slipped by Michigan St. by one point and found themselves with a perfect season, normally that would be one heck of a season but without the chance to prove themselves against Alabama, they enter the 2013 season with unfinished business. Ohio State has reasons to believe that this year will be no different, they get help with an offense that returns 9 starters and a schedule that features the football powerhouses of Buffalo, San Diego St, and Florida A&M.  They also get Wisconsin and Penn State at home before getting to a November that has 3 of 4 games on the road, with a (don’t laugh) much improved Indiana program as the only home game.  We like the chances of Ohio State playing for a National Title, but feel like they will slip up and lose one game before playing for a B1G championship and don’t see them making the BCS Championship Game.

 

2. University of Nebraska Cornhuskers 11-1 (Legends Division Champion)
The Cornhuskers have finished with only four losses for the last 5 seasons, yet if you are a Nebraska fan, you can’t be satisfied with anything, especially with an ending last year that featured one of the most embarrassing losses, on one of the biggest stages in school history.  If there was a year for a program looking to prove that they have officially returned to the main stage this is it for the Huskers.  They have an offense that is going to score and score often to keep them in every game and will blowout it’s lesser opponents.  The questions remain on defense where they have to replace 8 positions with a collection of new faces and juco transfers but with a schedule that is lined up for them to be 8-0 with a match-up with Michigan, we like the Huskers to return to the B1G title game and this time, they will show-up.  Look for the Huskers to be in a BCS game and maybe a trip to Pasadena.

 

3. University of Michigan Wolverines 9-3
We like the look of Michigan, they have the right schedule featuring home games against Notre Dame, Indiana, Nebraska, and Ohio State.  We like what their coach Brady Hoke is putting together in Ann Arbor, with solid recruiting and playmakers on both sides of the ball, but we don’t like them on the toughness meeter…meaning they have to replace too many starters within the trenches and we see them getting better and improving from the 8-5 season they had last year, but talks about them playing for a B1G championship or a BCS game will have to wait another year.

 

4. Northwestern Wildcats 9-3
Ok, this just feels weird.  We’ve now picked Northwestern before Wisconsin, Michigan St and Penn State… what the #*$% is going on here!  So, last year Northwestern proved that they could play with everyone!  They had no bad losses and came within a couple of touchdowns of having a 10 win regular season, this year Pat Fitzgerald and the Wildcats might hit the double digits again with a bowl win and easily could prove to be the number four team in the conference overall.  They return a solid and exciting group on offense and have enough talent and returns on defense to hold off it’s competitors.  We like the idea of back to back 10 wins for this Northwestern team and maybe their best season yet under coach Fitzgerald.

 

5.  Indiana University Hoosiers 9-3
This is a hard pick, this might be a surprise and this might be overreaching but in making preseason predictions, sometimes you have to take a bold step out and look for a program to turn a corner.  This might be our best pick and it could be our worst but we are picking Indiana as the fifth, that’s right fifth best team in all of the B1G conference this year.  Looking backwards first, Indiana finished 4-8, which if you factor close games that could’ve swung in their direction with a little more experience, they could’ve ended easily at 7-5, if that would’ve happened, we think everyone would be talking about them turning the corner this year, like they are with Northwester, as a football program and coach Kevin Wilson as the real deal, so we are.  If they make it past a couple of tough home games early against Bowling Green (yes, an early game against a good MAC team looking to prove something will be tough) and Missouri, look for a 4-0 record going into a home game against Penn St, where a win could put them on the map.  Make no mistakes, we are not picking them to win the conference but we think that Wilson has the pieces he needs at the right time to make a surprise run and put together a great season for the Hoosiers.

 

6. Michigan State Spartans 8-4
So this is just crazy…We have completed our top half of the B1G conference and no Wisconsin and no Penn State but Michigan State deserves this spot!  Last year they lost 4 of their last 7 but they played well in all of those games, suffering only a bad loss in OT against a down Iowa team.  This year they return leadership on both sides of the ball with 14 starters coming back for the Spartans, they have a schedule which has no Wisconsin, no Ohio State, and no Penn State and they will be in every game till the end.      Don’t be surprised if Michigan State finds themselves in the race for the legends division, we wont.