Signing Day and Site News
Just a quick note to say good luck to your favorite team here on signing day. Hopefully the recruits with the last minute change-of-heart don't negatively affect your schools class.
Also, I would like to note that I have been doing a lot of things behind the scene on the site. They probably will not be visible for 2-3 more months, but it will be worth the wait.
Posted By: JGuiher
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Bowl Trip Rewind
Here are some stats from our 4 day - 4 game bowl trip.
Total cost (per person): $325
Cost Breakdown (per person):
Tickets: $100
Food: $65
Gas: $107
Hotel: $32
Parking (includes metro): $20
Tolls: $1
Miles traveled: 2,883
Gallons of Gas: 88
Miles per Gallon: 32.75
Time spent on trip: 92 hours
Time spent driving: 46 hours
Posted By: JGuiher
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EagleBank Bowl Experience
The EagleBank Bowl was the big question mark of the trip. We had to drive 1,186 miles from Shreveport to Washington, DC in less than 18 hours to make the game on time. Luckily everything worked in our favor and the trip went very smooth until we were about 15 miles outside of DC when we hit stop and go traffic due to construction. Since parking was $20 at RFK, which is located in a somewhat limited parking area of downtown DC, we decided to park in Springfield, VA and ride the metro. This is the end stop on the blue line, and trains come every 11 minutes. It is approximately a 45 minute ride to RFK from there. We took too long finding the right ticket machine and missed the train we wanted by 1 minute. Luckily we did beat the rush hour clock by about 10 seconds, so the ride was only $2.35 vs $4.50.
We did stop real quick in some Armory building next to RFK on the way to the stadium to use the bathroom. I appeared to be hosting a pre-game tailgate. You had to go through metal detectors to get inside. I am not sure if this was the all-you-can-eat tailgate that fans complained about running out of food over 2 hours before kickoff or not, but there were a lot of fans in there from both teams. Considering how cold it was outside, I don't blame them.
Once we got to the stadium, I tried to use twitpic to post this picture of RFK but for some reason it froze my phone. By the time I got my phone to restart, I missed the pictures of the members of the Wounded Warrior Project parachuting into the stadium. I did get it started in time to take this picture of the huge American Flag they rolled out for the Anthem.
We had grabbed tickets from a scalper when we got off of the metro. They cost us $20 each. As you can see, they were free comp tickets given out to some group but they were going to cost us $30 at the gate and we didn't have a whole lot of time to waste as we got off the metro just 35 minutes before kickoff and it is .44 miles from the stadium.
Concessions were well, lacking. Look at these pictures, they are from 2 different stands and show the entire menu offered at the stadium. Only 1 in every 3 stands was set to be open (had menus posted) and then only about half of those were actually open. There was a Sodexho commercial at one point, so I don't know if they were in charge of the concession stands or not, but it was awful. The local high school here doesn't even have a concession stand, they have to bring in trailers every game, and it has a much better selection.
The stadium itself is probably close to being condemned. The only stadium I have been to that was in similar condition was the old Orange Bowl during its last season. The EagleBank Bowl was originally suppose to be called the Congressional Bowl and played at Nationals Park but the Nationals told them no. However, couldn't they pony up a little more money and pay Daniel Snyder to use FedEx Field? This Bowl is honestly likely to fold quickly if they can't upgrade the experience with better concessions and a maintained stadium.
The game itself was the tale of two halves. The first half (before Bernard Pierce got hurt) was dominated by Temple. They were all over UCLA and I could already see the headlines flowing about how it was the classic case of team who wants to be there vs team who could care less. Well, I disagree. It was the fact that Pierce was just plain the best skilled player on the field for either team and was making UCLA look silly. After he got hurt, Temple didn't have anyone else to go to for the big play, allowing UCLA to shut them down completely and finally win 30-21.
Attendance was pretty good (23,078)considering you wouldn't expect many UCLA fans to follow a 6-6 team to 15 degree weather. Temple fans travelled well, bringing almost 20,000 fans for a school with a history littered with failure. I was very impressed with both the Temple turnout and the level of enthusiasm. The fans stayed till inside the final 5 minutes and stood for the entire game.
Temple Fans
UCLA side
The overall presentation of the bowl was strange. They had tons of corporate banners in the stadium, and even sent a tweet the day before about how they had over 30 sponsors. However, there was very little mention of them. A reading of the list while displaying them on the replay board was about it. There was probably more focus on the Wounded Warrior Project than all the other sponsors combined. Halftime featured the Temple band with a standard performance.
After the game was over, we rode the metro back to Springfield, grabbed a bite to eat and drove the 204 miles back to our parents house outside of Pittsburgh.
Posted By: JGuiher
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Advocare V100 Independence Bowl Visit
After the Music City Bowl was over we drove back to our hotel room South of Nashville. We got a little under 4 hours of sleep and had to get up and leave for Shreveport, home of the Independence Bowl. It was a 538 mile drive that took almost 9 hours. We did drive a few miles out of the way around the city of Texarkana so my brother could say he has been to Texas. We also were looking for some sort of fast food TexMex type of place, but apparently such a thing doesn't exist around there. We wound up stopping at a Popeye's in Shreveport.
The part of Shreveport where the Independence Bowl is is not exactly prospering. Tim Brando may love his home town, but I can't say I would move there. Most houses had fenced yards, some with barbed wire on top and when driving around, we ran across a domestic dispute that resulted in the cops showing up.
Parking was interesting. The radio was reporting that the lots were filling up so you should park at the mall and get bussed in. Reports are that the line for the shuttles were wrapped the entire way around the mall and it was about 1 hour and 15 minutes from when you got in line till you got to the stadium. A fair portion of fans didn't get to the game till well into the 1st quarter or even the 2nd. I would not recommend using the shuttle system.
Luckily we didn't try the shuttle system, and instead drove around looking for a closer place. Parking ranged from $5-$20. Most parking was $10 and located in peoples yards. The problem was they were parking people up to 4 deep, so you were stuck there till the other cars left. Our drive around led us to Jewella Drive where the local Fox TV station is located, about 2 1/2 blocks from the Stadium. They offered paved parking for $5 and an easy walk to the stadium. Even more important, it was just a few blocks from Lakeshore Drive, which leads right to I-20, the road we needed to take to get out of town.
We already had tickets to the game waiting at the Georgia Will Call. Face value printed on the ticket was $35 but Georgia sold them for $30 each, although they did tack on a standard (yet ridiculous) $15 transaction fee. The Independence Bowl was a sellout because the schools are forced to buy so many tickets up front, but Georgia never did sell all their tickets. If I had to do it over, we would have just scalped.
Independence Stadium is an average stadium. It had odd bathroom arrangements with different rooms set up a bit like a maze. One room might have urinals and toilets, while another had sinks and urinals, etc. They were plenty big for the size of the stadium however. Concessions were your standard stadium foods along with a local pizza chain with $7 personal pizzas and of course there was beer.
The game itself was very good at the beginning, but Special Teams bit Texas A&M multiple times. The game was 0-0 well into the 2nd quarter thanks to a blocked A&M field goal. Finally A&M got on the board only to give up a kick return to Georgia to tie the score at 7-7. Then Georgia blocked a A&M punt for another score before half. At the end of the first half, Texas A&M employed some Les Miles time management and cost themselves a FG attempt. After that, Georgia came out and finally realized their players were bigger and stronger than A&M and just ran the ball down their throat. While the game got out of hand score wise, the Texas A&M fans stayed till about 10 minutes left in the game. The final score was 44-20 after A&M scored a late TD.
The halftime show featured a short show by each teams band, followed by some presentation that featured Archie Manning. The lady who spoke before Archie sounded like me speaking in public, which resulted in a soft boo from the crowd. After that, I lost interest to be honest.
Attendance was pretty good, announced as 49,653. Our section was pretty much an even mix of Georgia and A&M fans with A&M fans dominating the stadium. The Georgia fans around us were real nice and wished us safety on our trip to DC. There was also a nice flyover to start the game.
Posted By: JGuiher
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Gaylord Hotels Music City Bowl Review
As soon as the Meineke Bowl was over we drove straight to Nashville. The trip was 513 miles and took a little over 8 hours. There was a rock slide on Interstate 40 East of Knoxville a few months ago so we had to take some back roads as a detour, but a good trip overall. Our hotel room was actually in Murfreesboro, about 25 minutes SE of Nashville. It was good for a 2-star rated hotel and only cost us $31.50 a night. I've certainly stayed in worse places that cost a lot more. We slept till 11am, got up for a little (I wrote the Meineke entry) and then took a nap. Not a very exciting day, but we knew there was still a lot of driving left.
Driving to the game was real easy as we just had to head right up the interstate and follow the signs to the stadium. Once we got off the interstate there were cones everywhere to mark lanes to get you to the different stadium lots. I am not sure, but I assume the lots required pre-bought passes so we drove right past the stadium lots over the bridge of the Korean War Veterans Memorial Parkway. There is also a pedestrian only bridge (Shelby St Bridge) over the river so we tried to park as close to that as possible. As we headed toward the pedestrian bridge, we saw a parking garage with $10 parking. We went in and found a spot on the 3rd floor. Little did we know that where we parked was the Pinnacle building and that the pedestrian bridge is actually connected to the 3rd floor of the parking garage! I honestly don't think you could find a better place to park for $10. The area of Nashville where LP Field is located is really beautiful and well lit.
As soon as we stepped onto the Bridge there was a Kentucky fan selling 2 tickets. We were only looking for the $15 upper corner seats and he had the $50 lower level seats. When we told him this, he offered us the tickets for $20 each, a real good deal. I did get a little concerned when the "pro" scalpers were selling tickets from the same section for the same price. Then I got real worried when we got to the gate and the people in front of us who had bought tickets from the scalpers for the same section had counterfeit tickets. Thankfully our tickets were legit.
The stadium seemed to have good security that included limited pat downs. They had the same number of men a women "searchers" which created a wait in the men's line, although it moved very quickly.
Once inside, we took a walk around the stadium. Very nice with both name brand foods and regular stadium concessions. We stopped for a moment and stepped into a handicapped section of seats a section over from where our seats were. Just so happened that this was the section the Kentucky band was sitting in and they were right behind us so we had to stand there while they made their way to their seats. One member even gave us a "We Are..." and we gladly replied back "...Penn State."
We also walked up the ramp to the upper deck to take a picture from up there.
Concession prices were basically the same as Charlotte such as $7 for a personal Papa John's Pizza. Nachos were only $4 vs $5.50 for the same exact sized tray. Beer was more expensive at $7 for a 16 oz bottle. A 16 oz Hot Chocolate was also $7 in a plastic souvenir cup with a coffee mug type lid.
The view from our seat. This is the opening kickoff.
Our seats were in the 8th row of the endzone just to the side of the uprights. Only 4 rows of seats were in front of us because of the camera. The seats were in the Kentucky section. The fans were extremely nice and the little kid sitting beside me was very well behaved. My favorite part was that the fans stood the entire game.
The game itself was pretty good. Kentucky had the early momentum with the crowd being almost 80% Kentucky fans by my best guess. Their game plan did perplex me a little as they ran a lot on 3rd down, even in long distance situations. Based on the chants from the fans, the Kentucky fans certainly believed that SEC speed is greater than ACC speed. Then Spiller and Ford got the ball a few times in open space and I swear they shelved that chant in a hurry. I said a few weeks ago that I thought CJ Spiller was going to turn out to be like Teddy Ginn Jr and be nothing more than an over-paid punt returner. Then I saw him in person. Wow! Good vision, even better speed. Once Clemson started to use Harper some to run up the middle, then just out powered Kentucky and won the game 21-13.
The attendance was announced as 57,280, which seemed about right for the number of people in the stands. The only empty seats were in the upper deck under the sets of lights. Not sure how to explain it, but it seemed like those seats are purposefully sold last.
Halftime featured the bands of the 2 schools doing "best of" performances, which I like a lot better than the music acts or dance groups you get at the bigger bowls.
There was more corporate advertising then the Meineke Bowl, but it was done in a way that flowed well with the TV timeouts and the crowd. For instance, if a timeout came when the crowd was fired up, they would skip the commercials and catchy stadium music. If it was a more subdued crowd at the time, then the corporate plugs were played. What was odd was new 2010 title sponsor Franklin American Morgage Company had more ads than current sponsor Gaylord Hotels. Overall, well done production in my opinion. Best of the 7 Bowls I have been to. I would go back in a heartbeat even though the Big Ten doesn't play there.
Posted By: JGuiher
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Meineke Car Care Bowl Experience
My brother and I left from outside Pittsburgh just after 6am. Drove 442 miles straight through to Charlotte and arrived around 1:15pm. Pretty uneventful drive except for stop and go traffic about 30 miles outside of Charlotte, put that only delayed us maybe 5 minutes total.
We got off the interstate and Bank of America Stadium is right there just a few blocks away. Parking was plentiful as it seemed like anyone with a sign and a empty space would sell you a spot. Prices ranged from $25-$10 and what was amazing was the $10 was the only one in a paved lot that was in front of a business that wasn't shuttered. It was actually a brand new office building with cameras around so it was an easy choice.
Since we got to Charlotte so early, we found a radio broadcast of the Little Caesars Bowl and listened to that until Marshall took the 21-0 lead. At this point we decided to walk around and find some tickets. Since we are on a budget, we were looking for the $35 upper deck seats. The Bowl only sold about 1/3 of the upper deck seats, limiting the sections they were available in to the 4 sections on each side between the 30 yard lines and the lower 1/2 of the sections from the endzones to the 30 yard lines. These tickets were actually the hardest to find on the street. Club seats ($100 face) could be had for around $75 each and the $65 face value seats were around $45 each. We got our $35 tickets for $30 each and I am sure we could have got them for $25 but the guy was nice so I didn't even try to bargin.
The tickets were for the UNC side of the field, which led to a few interesting situations, right on the 40 yard line. Not bad at all since they were aisle seats and the rows started at row 5 due to the portal.
The Meineke Car Care Bowl had a nice area set up about a block from the stadium with a band and the usual assortment of fun activites, mainly geared toward kids. The Geico Gecko was there which seemed to have a large crowd of people. I was surprised to see that drinking was allowed in this area, but there was plently of security around so there was no threat of anything getting out of hand in that area.
Bank of America Stadium was very nice. It is your standard modern stadium with plenty of ramps, bathrooms and consessions. They offered Domino's Pizza, Bojangles Chicken and JJR's Pork along with your standard stadium fares like Hot Dogs, Popcorn and Nachos. 16oz beers ranged from $6.25 - $7.50 depending on brand and they had 13 to choose from I think. The Pizza was $7 for a individual size and the popcorn was $4 for a small bag. 20oz bottles of soda and water were $4. My favorite part of the stadium was in the upper deck where Schutt helmets has a display of helmets for every Collegiate and High School team in North Carolina.
Lots of Meineke advertisement including George Foreman himself at mid-field to do the coin toss. They also gave out Meineke Gift Baskets during TV timeouts to people in the stands if you could answer trivia questions related to their pre-game video.
The game itself is where things got interesting being seated with the UNC fans. First, they thought since we were wearing Penn State stuff that we were rooting for Pitt since both teams are in PA. Hello, UNC fans, that would be like assuming you are going to cheer for Duke basketball because they are from the same state. The Penn State/Pitt rivalry is still in the top 10 rivalry display at the College Football Hall of Fame! We don't like them, trust me. Second, not every pass play where your QB fails to get it to your receiver is pass interference. While I agree that refs miss calls every so often, I promise they don't miss that many. Finally, the "punt" by Little into the stands after his TD catch to open the game was classless. Hand the ball to the ref, celebrate with your team and get off the field.
This pic is from the 4th quarter when Pitt made the winning drive. I must have moved, it is a little burry.
So once we were able to convice the people around us that we weren't Pitt fans, we were able to enjoy the game. Lots of momentum shifts and big plays for both teams. For instance lets look at the 4th quarter. UNC is driving to go up by 4-8 (pending FG or TD). They got into FG range and Pitt suddenly gets 2 straight sacks to force a punt. Then Pitt drives down the field while chewing up the clock. UNC gets Pitt stopped for 4th and 3 so they need a 48 yard field goal, which is the edge of their kickers range, to take the lead with less than 3 min left. For some unknown reason, UNC then jumps offside giving Pitt a free first down. Pitt runs down the clock to 52 seconds and kicks and easy FG for the 19-17 win. It was a good game between 2 evenly matched, top 20-25 teams.
Lastly, attendance was a little weak (announced as 50,389) and that includes the tickets Pitt had to buy that didn't get sold. Pitt gave free tickets to any student who made the trip, but it didn't seem to make much of a difference. The section they had designated for this was mostly empty. Tickets for the endzone sections in the upper deck were not sold and you actually could not walk the whole way around the upper concourse. When WVU played UNC in this Bowl last year it was a sellout. It is only 30 minutes further for Pitt fans so I just don't understand. It was their best season since Dan Marino was QB and they can't get 20,000 fans to a bowl game.
Added: The halftime show:
The halftime show featured both schools bands. UNC came out and did a Blue Man Group performance. All members of the band drummed on things such as empty tin cans and garbage cans. It was maybe the most impressive show I have seen by a band. Sure, there was no marching involved but it was well put together and truely entertaining. Pitt on the other hand just did a quick song from the stands. Yes, that's right, they didn't even get out of their seats! However they did manage to perform Sweet Caroline (my most hated non-Michael Jackson stadium song) at the end of the third quarter as they traditionally do.
Posted By: JGuiher
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Beaver Stadium Press Box Experience
I am one of those crazy fans who is willing to spend more than I should for unique experiences and game-used collectables. I have about a half-dozen autographed game-worn jerseys from various Penn State sports, basketball shoes, Wheaties boxes, footballs, etc. Really the only thing I am missing is a game-worn helmet, but the last one went for over $450 and I needed that money for my wifes Christmas present so I had to pass. Anyways, Penn State auctioned off a VIP Press Box experience for 2 that I won for $505 to the Indiana game. The experience included pre-game sideline passes, Press Box seats, and admittance to the post-game press conference.
Purchase experience:
Almost all schools offer various auctions on their official athletic websites, particularly those affiliated with CSTV. The auctions are great and are run smoothly and if you have any questions, the CSTV staff usually answers them quickly. The first issue I had was when it came to the Penn State side of things. It took 3 days for me to get an email from the athletic department telling me who to meet and where to meet them. The email also required us to submit the full names of the 2 people who would be enjoying the experience. Besides that there wasn't much info except a note that told us that since it was a "working" Press Box, we would not be allowed to cheer. I kind of expected this, but it would have been nice for it to have been disclosed before you bid. I was hoping they would just put us off in our own area where we could show some emotion.
Gameday:
Meeting the chaperon:
The girl we were suppose to meet was located a good 50 yards from the entrance we were told to meet her at. Luckily we were given her cell phone number so we were able to locate her. Apparently you can redeem (PSU corporate sponsor - uggg) Bank of America rewards points for pre-game sideline passes so we were lumped with 6 other people. Some corporate head kept talking to us about how happy they were to have me as a customer not realizing I wasn't with his credit card company. I just wanted to scream, hey buddy, I don't care, I'm not with your group!
On Field Experience:
We were told we could go wherever we wanted, just don't step on the grass. We headed down toward the Indiana bench area first before working our way over to the Penn State side. It was a fun experience as you can see in the pictures from getting to enter through the player gates to getting close to the players. It was everything I hoped it would be. We were suppose to get a 8x10 photo on the field but that didn't happen. No idea why, but if I had known that, we would have had someone take a picture for us.
Penn State Player Entrance to Beaver Stadium
Standing on the endline during warm-ups
Joe Paterno and to his right, Penn State President Graham Spanier
Picture of the West Side (Press Box side) of Beaver Stadium. I marked where we sat in the Press Box and where our normal nose bleed seats are.
The Nittany Lion leading the pre-game crowd cheers
The Drum Major landing his first of two flips and saluting the crowd
Flyover with a Blackhawk and some other type of helicopters I forget
The Nittany Lion and Cheerleaders leading the team onto the field
The team on the sideline and on the left (red hair) Coach Mike McQueary
Press Box Experience:
We had to go through security before weaving our way through a series of doorways to our seats. I have to say, not what I expected. The Press Box was certainly not luxurious. In fact, it honestly needs major updating. As you can see in the pictures below, I also have a new found respect for the spotters and announcers, you can't see 1/3 of the field! We were told someone would come and check on us later and left to enjoy the game. Didn't make it 30 seconds in our seat before a member of the press broke the "no cheering" rule. Actually, I guess it wasn't cheering, as he was ripping on Penn State for a good 20 minutes straight. Didn't matter if it was the offense, defense, special teams or medical staff, this guy would just hate on them. I don't want to pick on a member of the media, but for a guy who makes his living selling Penn State fluff pieces on his pay website, I thought it was extremely poor. It was getting close to halftime and I needed a drink. We were not sure if we would be able to get back through security if we went downstairs to get something at a concession stand so we just helped ourselves to the media food. This is where being an experienced media member or having someone tell us where to go would have helped because every floor had a different spread of food and we obviously chose the wrong one. We got hamburgers and hot dogs (not Berks even though they are a corporate sponsor) while some other members of the media came back with things like deli sandwiches, soup, and hot apple crisp. Sorry, can't help you, we never did figure out what level those were on. We enjoyed the rest of the game and with a few minutes left, the entire media got up and left, leaving just us in our entire section. Again, no one came to get us or check on us, so we had to go to another room and ask someone to take us to the press conference.
The opening play of the game with Indiana on offense
The view from our Press Box seats. Where are all the students?! It's senior day, come out and support the team! Sad
Our Press Box view when we leaned up over the reporters from the Indiana Daily Student
Press Conference Experience:
We got to the Press Conference maybe a minute before it started. We sat in the back by the video cameras and just tried to stay out of the way. It was certainly another area where we could have used someone to tell us what was going to happen. As soon as Joe Paterno was done with his portion, the entire media split up to different sections and we were in the way where we were sitting. Apparently only Joe sits at the main table, all the players and coaches break off the smaller areas and give individual interviews. I have no idea what you do as a media member if you want to ask questions of 2 people who are giving interviews at the same time. I just know we felt in the way so we took a picture of the Adam Taliaferro painting (see below) and left to get out of the way.
Joe Paterno at the post-game Press Conference
Original Painting of the Miami at Penn State game where Adam Taliaferro led the team onto the field after being paralyzed the previous year in a game against Ohio State. If you don't know his story, click on the link above (his name) and read the "Adam's Journey" part real quick. We have a print of this painting in our restaurant and donate $1 to his foundation for every "Adam Taliaferro" sandwich we sell.
Overall Experience:
I had a good time. I know my review sounds like a negative complaint-filled rant but I was a good experience overall. I wouldn't spend that much to do it again, but I do recommend the experience to anyone who is interested, just be aware that you might have to take it upon yourself to get food or get to the press conference on time. I would give it a 3 out of 5.
Posted By: JGuiher
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How I snuck into Scheumann Stadium
With security a big concern for stadiums, I found my experience at Ball State's Scheumann Stadium to be quite odd.
I went to the Central Michigan at Ball State game on November 18th. Took me almost 8 hours to get there. They had a promotion with the local Rotary Club where you got a free General Admission ticket to game if you donated a new blanket so I stopped at the Walmart about a mile from the stadium and picked up a King size blanket for $9.
Parking was fairly easy as there are some streets (South I think) of the stadium where you can park for free if you know where. There is also a high school right beside the stadium where you can park for $5, which is the option I took as it was lit and paved. I was going to park in the school lots but I couldn't read the signs in the dark and they were not lit so I couldn't see if they were for pre-paid passes only or not. This is where things get interesting.
When you park at the school, you have to walk around a fence that separates it from the stadium ground. As soon as I made it around the fence, I made a right down a dirt road that had portable lights. About 1/2 way down the road toward the stadium, there was a gate with a security person stopping vehicles without proper identification. Since I was just walking, she said hi and let me thorough. This appeared to be where the coaches and other important personnel parked. As I got to the stadium, there was a fence and the road funneled me to "Gate 5." The problem is there was no one at Gate 5, it was just wide open. I just walked right in and sat down in the stands!
View from stands showing security personnel who were watching pregame and not at gate 5
Pic from stands showing pregame warm-ups.
Well, I had already bought the blanket so I wanted to go donate it and get my ticket stub. So, after a few minutes of sitting in the rain, I went and found Gate 4 where they were suppose to collect the blankets. I got there and the girls working the gate said no one there was collecting the blankets, so I was sent to ticket office. They sent me back to Gate 4, who again sent me back to the ticket office! Finally, a nice lady in the ticket office decided "enough is enough" so she promised to get the blanket where it needed to go and gave me a ticket. I have to say it was the oddest experience I have ever had.
I went inside and got a program, which they hand out for free so that was nice. It had been about 4 hours since I ate during my last stop for gas in Ohio so I found a concession stand. They had a combo deal for a hot dog, soda and bag of chips for $5.75, which was $1.50 or so off. I walked around the entire stadium, but I never did find a sign for where the General Admission seating was (maybe the grass?) so I just took an entire section to myself in the upper corner of the endzone seating. If I ever went back though, I would sit along the sidelines because I couldn't see the scoreboard from where I was. Despite the game being against the MAC Champions, Central Michigan, the attendance at the game was the smallest crowd of any game I have ever been to at 5,736.
The student section, arguably the most populated portion of the stands
My water damaged program
Side note: Somewhere during my walk around the stadium, I lost my ticket stub I had to work so hard to get, so if anyone knows someone in the ticket office that could replace it, it would make my Christmas! I have the rain damaged program to prove I was there, plus I am sure the lady in the ticket office will remember the Penn State guy who had the blanket.
Posted By: JGuiher
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Frequently Asked Questions
Wanted to add this that I found from the old site.
Why have this site:
Well, my goal is to watch a college football game live in every FBS stadium. I am not the only person who has this goal (see the links section) so after looking at their sites, I decided to start my own. I understand that my site is not the fanciest, will never be high traffic, and will never make me famous, but that isn't my goal.
Why not just be on some blog network:
A couple of reasons. 1) I enjoy the challenge of coding the webpage. 2) I hate advertisements. Doesn't mean that I will never have ads, but they must fit the site and not be annoying.
What's up with your obsession:
Well, in my opinion, there is nothing like going to a live college football game. My first came in 1997 when I was a freshman at Penn State. I was instantly hooked and attended every game during my 5 years as a student. My first away game was when Penn State played at Virginia December 1, 2001 in a game originally scheduled for Thursday night but delayed due to the September 11 attacks. I was drawn to the unique experience that was unlike a home game and started traveling to away Penn State games when I had the time and money. After that, I started going to games on days Penn State didn't play and my experiences grew from there.
Do you really believe you will make it to them all:
Realistically, probably not, but I am going to try. The cost in terms of both pure money and time away from both my wife and the business can be great, but then again, if I basically am 1/4 of the way there in just 8 years, it just might happen. It does help that some people have provided me with free tickets to some games.
Did you really go to 2 games in 1 day:
Yes, Bowling Green and Toledo are less than 20 miles apart. Bowling Green played at noon and Toledo played at 7pm, leaving plenty of time to travel to the Toledo game (plus catch 3 quarters of the Penn State at Michigan game at a sportsbar). It was fantastic and I hope to do it again if the schedule allows.
Posted By: JGuiher
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4 Game Bowl Trip Finalized
I have finalized my plans for a four day bowl trip with my brother. We are going to take along the laptop and camera and do daily updates on the site in addition to more frequent twitter updates. If any of the Bowls want something in particular covered (my opinion on it) like tailgating, parking, etc just ask. The only town we don't have a place to stay is Nashville right now.
First stop will be the Meineke Car Care Bowl in Charlotte December 26th to watch Pitt vs North Carolina. Wish I was a Pitt student so we could get free tickets as Pitt is giving them away to any student who makes the trip. Come on Pitt fan, get down to Charlotte it is only a 7 hour drive! You can make it a one-day round trip.
The second stop will be the Gaylord Hotels Music City Bowl on December 27th to watch Kentucky vs Clemson. If anyone has any suggestions on where we can stay for a few hours or eat, please let me know. You don't even have to register for the site to leave a comment so please help me out.
The third stop will be December 28th in Shreveport, LA to watch the AdvoCare V100 Independence Bowl between Texas A&M and Georgia. One of my employees was born in, and has a bunch of family he is visiting, in Shreveport so we are going to stop by their place for a few hours of sleep and a home cooked meal.
The final stop, which will require 19 straight hours of driving from the Independence Bowl will be the Eagle Bank Bowl in Washington, DC on December 29th between UCLA and Temple. I love Al Golden as a coach and am excited to see his team play for the third time this season. Also another town where an employee resides (about 30 min away) so we hope to attend the game with him and stay the night before driving back home and get some much needed sleep somewhere other than a car.
That will give me 4 new stadiums, with all of them being "Bowl only" stadiums for FBS college football and 6 teams that I have never seen live before. Would love to hear from
Posted By: JGuiher
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College Football Awards & Predictions
The College Football Awards show in on ESPN tonight at 7 PM EST. There are 9 awards given out the College Players, plus the Home Depot Coach of the Year Award. I never watch too much of these things because a lot of the winners are announced ahead of time, but the Steelers don't play till 8:20 so I'll watch tonight and update these real-time.
Lets look at the award finalist and predict a winner (who I would pick) for each. Update: I got 8 out of 9 of the awards correct tonight.
Maxwell Award
Finalists: Ingram, McCoy, Tebow
The Maxwell Award is suppose to go the the nations most outstanding college football player. It is basically the same exact criteria as the Heisman, just not quite as famous.
Prediction: McCoy
Winner: Colt McCoy
Bednarik
Finalists: Cody, Spikes, Suh
The Chuck Bednarik goes to the most outstanding defensive player.
Prediction: Suh
Winner: Ndamukong Suh
Belitnikoff
Finalists: Barnes, Shipley, Tate
The Belitnikoff goes the the nations most outstanding receiver.
Prediction: Tate
Winner: Golden Tate
Groza
Finalists: Forbath, Tiffin, Walsh
The Lou Groza award goes to the nations best place kicker.
Prediction: Forbath
Winner: Kai Forbath
Guy
Finalists: Butler, Henry, Mesko
The Ray Guy award goes to the nations best Punter.
Prediction: Butler
Winner: Drew Butler
O'Brien
Finalists: Keenum, McCoy, Tebow
The Davey O'Brien award goes to the nations best quarterback, just like the Unitas award.
Prediction: McCoy
Winner: Colt McCoy
Outland
Finalists: Iupati, Okung, Suh
The Outland Trophy goes to the nations best interior lineman. This can be either offense or defense.
Predicition: Iupati
Winner: Ndamukong Suh
Thorpe
Finalists: Berry, Haden, Thomas
The Jim Thorpe award goes to the nations best defensive back.
Prediction: Berry
Winner: Eric Berry
Walker
Finalists: Gerhart, Ingram, Spiller
The Doak Walker award goes to the nations best running back. This is my favorite award out of them all.
Prediction: Gerhart
Winner: Toby Gerhart
Home Depot Coach of the Year
Winner: Brian Kelly
Lombardi
Awarded to the nations top defensive lineman.
Winner: Ndamukong Suh
Butkus
Awarded to the nations best linebacker.
Winner: Rolando McClain
Nagurski
Winner: Ndamukong Suh
Hendricks
Given to the nations top Defensive End.
Winner: Jerry Hughes
Camp
The Walter Camp award is given to the most outstanding player (where have we heard that before)
Winner: Colt McCoy
Heisman
Finalists: Ingram, McCoy, Gerhart, Suh, Tebow
The Heisman is the most famous college football award and goes to the nations most outstanding football player.
Prediciton: Ingram (note this is not my vote, I would go Gerhart, Suh, Ingram but according to @stiffarmtrophy Ingram has the lead on known votes.)
If you don't like my take on the winners, here is a link to ESPN's opinion.
Posted By: JGuiher
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Bowl Game Previews & Predictions
Once, a long time ago, I finished in the top 250 people in the ESPN Bowl Mania Challenge. Since then, I have plain sucked, so your best bet might be to just pick opposite of me if you play in the Bowl Mania Challenge or a similar game.
Feel free to comment on where you think I am wrong or if I have any typos.
Sorry some stuff on the site still isn't how I want it, like the coaches link and some of the tables, but I do all the programming myself and it is just a hobby and it is a lot of trial and error.
Clicking on the name of the bowl will open a new window with their official website.
Fresno State vs. Wyoming
This game will get the 2009-2010 bowl season started. The big matchup will be Fresno State RB Ryan Matthews vs. the Wyoming Rush Defense, which ranked toward the bottom of FBS this season. I personally find the Wyoming logo to be the best in FBS but unlike my wife, I can't pick solely on uniform colors and mascots. I just don't think the Wyoming offense can score enough to keep up with Fresno State.
Prediction: Fresno State 41-17
Central Florida vs. Rutgers
The St. Petersburg Bowl team has been the best bowl at keeping their fans informed via social media. Nice contests and VIP packages for those who follow them. UCF has already sold out their 1st ticket allotment so I imagine this bowl will seem like a home game for UCF, but I think Rutgers can win a close one with some 2nd half adjustments.
Prediction: Rutgers 28-27
Southern Miss vs. Middle Tennessee State
The 1st of 2 bowls in the Louisina Superdome. The New Orleans Bowl says they use the "expanded" football seating of the stadium, but the Superdome site says they use the regular "Tulane" configuration. Either way, this game is unlikely to sell out but you might want to call to make sure you get the best seats available. Southern Miss has a great RB in Damion Fletcher while Middle Tennessee State has a good defense. I think Fletcher will eventually wear down the MTSU defense, leading Southern Miss to victory.
Prediction: Southern Miss 35-24
Oregon State vs. Bringham Young
I love this matchup. I am surprised to see BYU make their 5th straight appearance in the Las Vegas Bowl, but they are close and I am sure they sell a decent amount of tickets. I like the Rogers brothers for Oregon State, but BYU has an potent offense which could give Oregon State trouble on Defense. I am going to go with Oregon State in a shootout.
Prediction: Oregon State 45-42
Utah vs. California
Qualcomm is another Stadium that gets to host 2 Bowl Games. Would love to see Jahvid Best return for Cal in this game, but I don't think that is going to happen. However, I still like their chances against a good, but not as good as usual Utah team.
Prediction: California 35-24
Nevada vs. Southern Methodist
Hawaii has to be a hard place to take a team for a Bowl Game just because it has to be so difficult to get the players to focus. I think this will give SMU an early advantage because Coach June Jones knows all about the distractions in Hawaii. I think in the end however that Nevada is the more talented team and will run their way to the win.
Prediction: Nevada 35-20
Marshall vs. Ohio
Formerly the Motor City Bowl, then briefly (a few months) the Little Caesars Pizza Bowl, before they dropped the "Pizza" part for unknown reasons. If anything, they should have made it "Pizza Pizza" but I digress. I find this to be one of the worst matchups out there. If their QB can get healthy in time for the game, I will take the Frank Solich lead Ohio Bobcats to beat the coachless Marshall team. PS, I do give an A for effort to the Bowl Committee for giving out 10,000 free tickets to poor and military families in the economically devestated Detroit area.
Prediction: Ohio 31-17
Pitt vs. North Carolina
The Meineke Car Care Bowl must be the 2nd most active on the social media front. Good marketing from them. I think I would give a consession or ticket discount to those who show up with a "Wanstache." I don't have a good idea for Butch Davis though so some might think they are favoring Pitt. I just think it would help even the crowd since Pitt is such a farther drive and they lost their last 2 games and went from BCS to Charlotte. I was at the Backyard Brawl and the fan base was dejected, I can't imagine what it was like after the loss to Cincinnati. I think this will all add up to a UNC win, although I think Pitt will score this year. Hopefully I can talk someone into taking the trip with me to this game.
Prediction: North Carolina 27-17
Boston College vs. Southern California
The Bowl that always produces the weirdest commercials from the Emerald Nut people. USC might not be as dominate this year as they have been, but at least I don't have to hear how they are sick of going to the Rose Bowl. Boston College was not a good road team this year, so I will go with USC.
Prediction: Southern California 38-17
Kentucky vs. Clemson
Unlike some people, I think CJ Spiller is just a RB version of Teddy Ginn Jr. A nice return guy who will not turn out to be worthy of where he is drafted. With that said, he is still an amazing College Football player that can single-handedly take over a game. I think Clemson will start a little slow, the turn it on right before half time, resulting in a nice win.
Prediction: Clemson 31-24
Texas A&M vs. Georgia
Both teams expected to be in a "January" Bowl. Both teams have defensive issues. I think Georgia has a better offense and can win this game fairly easily.
Prediction: Georgia 41-24
UCLA vs. Temple
Another Bowl that I hope to attend. I am using UCLA in this preview since Navy is favored over Army this weekend. Temple went 9-3 this season, but they did lose big to the 2 better opponents they played.
Prediction: UCLA 24-17
Miami vs. Wisconsin
The 1st of 2 Bowl Games within 3 days at the Florida Citrus Bowl. Wisconsin is always a hard team to read as their basic style makes them look so bland, yet they find a way to win consistently year after year. Miami started the year on fire, only to cool off and lose a few games that they were favored in. Not sure which way to go in this game, so I will show my Big Ten bias.
Prediction: Wisconsin 24-23
Bowling Green vs. Idaho
I saw Bowling Green play live twice this season and I honestly was not impressed by anyone other than Freddie Barnes. Idaho had a great season and will be playing close to home, although Bronco Stadium was not kind to them when they played there a few weeks ago.
Prediction: Idaho 27-24
Arizona vs. Nebraska
Tradionally a high-scoring, entertaining Bowl, this year the two teams are a little lacking in the offense department. I think the game will hinge on whether Nebraska can get 250 yards of offense because Arizona is going to triple team Suh. I am going to guess that they will find just enough.
Prediction: Nebraska 24-14
Houston vs. Air Force
An old school triple option team vs a modern high powered spread offense. Which team is going to get the last turnover will be the key in my opinion. I think Houston will win a close one just like last year.
Prediction: Houston 34-31
Oklahoma vs. Stanford
Oklahoma started the season in position to play for the National Title. After just 60 minutes of football their season was wrecked and they didn't seem to recover until the last game of the season when they beat Oklahoma State 27-0. Stanford is likely to be without their starting QB as well, which I think will lead them to rush Toby Gerhart 40+ times. I think Gerhart single-handedly will power Stanford to the win in the 4th quarter after being passed over for the Heisman.
Prediction: Stanford 34-30
Navy vs. Missouri
Another triple option vs. spread offense matchup. Missouri is upset after ISU was taken over them for the Insight Bowl, and normally I would always pick against any team who feels slighted, but I just don't think Navy's defense matches up with Missouri WR Alexander.
Prediction: Missouri 38-24
Minnesota vs. Iowa State
Iowa State was selected ahead of Missouri putting them in a tougher matchup according to conference rank while Minnesota is likely without top WR Decker. Again, I normally don't like teams who are bumped up, but Minnesota is going through their own issues on both offense and with their head coach being rumored for the Kansas job.
Prediction: Iowa State 20-10
Virginia Tech vs. Tennessee
Leave it to Tennessee coach Lane Kiffin to continue to keep his team in the news between ripping Urban Meyer on College Game Day, to sending girls to "visit" with potential high school recruits. I can't imagine that he came up with all of these ideas himself, but USC never gets investigated so maybe he learned them in Oakland? Virginia Tech is a better team with a better coach and should win a good defensive game.
Prediction: Virginia Tech 20-17
Northwestern vs. Auburn
I love Pat Fitzgerald. I think Northwestern would have beat Penn State this year had their QB made it more than 20 minutes, but that has been their problem all year. Auburn started the year hot before falling off. I think they can use their 2 QB's better than Northwestern, resulting in a win.
Prediction: Auburn 34-28
Penn State vs. Louisiana State
Being a Penn State fan, it is very hard for me to predict this game. I think LSU has major issues at QB, but Penn State has major Offensive Line issues, making both the running and passing games struggle against good defenses. Defense is going to be the theme here and I think this game turns out to be like the 2002 Capital One game when PSU played Auburn.
Prediction: Louisiana State 13-9
West Virginia vs. Florida State
If I had to pick 1 game I could go to, it would be this one, even though Penn State plays at the exact same time, less than 2 hours away. So, instead of deciding between the 2, I will watch at home with the remote nearby. Should be an entertaining game that normally would go WVU's way with the coaching conflicts at FSU, but Bobby Bowden is a proud man who I think can pull off the win.
Prediction: Florida State 35-34
Ohio State vs. Oregon
This game saw the opening spread move over 4 points in favor of Oregon in the first 2 hours. I watched both teams a few times on TV and Ohio State live once as well. It all depends on how Pryor plays. Does he play like he did against Purdue or like he did against Penn State? I will go against the nation on this an pick OSU to win with defense.
Prediction: Ohio State 31-30
Florida vs. Cincinnati
The question here is how does Florida react to both the loss to Alabama and the loss of Defensive Coordinator Charlie Strong. Cincinnati has problems on defense and any pressure on QB Pike is going to be an issue with his arm problems. This game has to potential to be as ugly as when Hawaii made the BCS a few years ago.
Prediction: Florida 45-17
South Florida vs. Northern Illinois
Another Bowl that I think has a bad matchup. Depending on when I decide to re-open the business after New Years, I may or may not attend this game. South Florida is playing with their 2nd string QB, but should be able to win this game.
Prediction: South Florida 34-17
South Carolina vs. Connecticut
The dark horse in the Notre Dame soap opera is UConn coach Randy Edsall. This give South Carolina an edge in the mental state of their team. Also watch for Steve Spurier to call the same offensive play (usually a fade) a minimum of 3 times in a row at some point of this game. No idea why the offensive genious thinks his QB Garcia can make this play work, but it is almost always a major fail. Despite this, I think South Carolina will win this game that will have multiple momentum shifts.
Prediction: South Carolina 27-23
Oklahoma State vs. Mississippi
The Cotton Bowl, which is no longer played in the Cotton Bowl, features two teams who fell off throughout the season. Oklahoma State got destroyed 27-0 with a BCS game on the line and Ole Miss has offensive line woes that require a lot of max-protect schemes. I think Oklahoma State is going to just go through the motions despite being the better all-around team.
Prediction: Mississippi 27-20
Arkansas vs. East Carolina
I like East Carolina against most teams because of their defense, but they gave up a lot of points to Houston's passing attack and Ryan Mallett is the top SEC QB. However I am never sold on the defense of an Petrino coached team.
Prediction: East Carolina 30-28
Michigan State vs. Texas Tech
I love the Alamo Bowl people, who even openly asked @sbradley3 to on twitter the other day to cover some activities for them via social media. I do think they got an odd Bowl matchup with Michigan State missing 10% of their team due to a fight and Texas Tech not knowing who their QB would be until yesterday when they picked Potts. I think Texas Tech will dominate the crowd, and the game. No truth to the rumor that the Alamo Bowl told MSU Coach Dantonio he can't call his timeouts if losing by more than 16 in the final minute.
Prediction: Texas Tech 38-24
Boise State vs. Texas Christian
I understand the argument @slmandel made that it does neither BSU or TCU any good to play lower ranked teams like Georgia Tech or Iowa. I just don't see what good it does them to play each other either. The conventional argument is that the non-AQ teams couldn't win if they had to play a full season in a conference like the SEC, Big Ten or the Big XII. This is where a playoff (or +1) would allow these types of teams to try and disprove critics. Personally I think TCU is better than both Texas and Cincinnati. I also think they would lose to Alabama, but sadly we don't get to find out. In fact, had Texas lost, Cincinnati would have played Alabama, not TCU. I think this normally would cause TCU to be down and dejected, but I think Gary Patterson is an amazing coach who keeps his teams frame of mind steady. Boise State QB Moore only threw 3 interceptions all year, and they are to nations top offense, but I don't think they played a team anywhere close to as good as TCU on defense. I think he throws 2 picks in this game alone.
Prediction: Texas Christian 38-27
Iowa vs. Georgia Tech
I saw Iowa dominate Penn State live, but all the games I watched on TV, I was not impressed. I think they are a bit like Wisconsin in that they are so bland you don't realize how good they are. Georgia Tech is suspect in some areas on defense and special teams, but their offense is unlike anything Iowa has seen all year. I think their QB Nesbitt will complete a late pass, leading to a last-drive win.
Prediction: Georgia Tech 31-30
Central Michigan vs. Troy
Some people don't like this matchup, but it should be a nice offensive shootout. Troy is 3rd nationally offensively and Central Michigan has QB Dan LeFevour who has better career stats then Tim Tebow. The real thing to figure out here is if Central Michigan will have their head coach if Cincinnati loses Brian Kelly to Notre Dame. Rumors continue that Cincinnati would be interested in Butch Jones if Kelly leaves. Despite this, I still like LeFevour to take over in the 4th quarter.
Prediction: Central Michigan 34-27
Texas vs. Alabama
The opening points spread was Alabama favored by 4. I would take Alabama on any spread less than 10. I think Colt McCoy should have won the Heisman last year, and Texas should have played for the National Title, but I have been less than impressed this year by both Texas and McCoy when they have played tough competition.
Prediction: Alabama 31-17
Posted By: JGuiher
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Coaching Silly-Season Updates
12 FBS Schools have decided to make coaching changes so far this year. I find some of the behind closed doors actions of school administrators and coaches double talk (lies) disgusting, but it seems to be acceptable. However, some day I hope the NCAA comes up with some way to limit or end the hiring of other schools coaches between say December 1 and the end of the National Championship Game.
Lets start with the schools who have already made their hire.
Memphis Memphis has hired Larry Porter to be their new coach. He is coming from being an assistant coach at LSU and is considered to be a good recruiter. Porter was one of two major candidates for Memphis along with Redskins assistant Jerry Gray. Early rumors had Gray getting the job due to his ties to FedEx founder and major Memphis booster Fred Smith, whose son is also a QB on the Memphis team. I personally think Porter was the correct hire between the two.
Western Kentucky WKU moved pretty quickly in the coaching search as well and hired Willie Taggart, an assistant coach from Stanford. Taggart has interviewed for a few other head coaching jobs in the past and I am glad to see him finally get a shot as a head coach. He also is a former WKU player and coach, so I don't think their were any other serious candidates.
Virginia Virginia just announced their new hire yesterday of Richmond's Mike London. London was previously an assistant at Virginia and the hire was made less than 24 hours after Richmond was eliminated from the FCS playoffs (in the last ever game at University of Richmond Stadium) by Appalachian State. I do not know of any other major canidates for this job and it seems some behind-the-scenes contact may have occured even before Groh was officially fired. I think this is the best of the completed hires so far.
Florida State I still don't like what happened here, but I guess that doesn't matter. FSU decided to replace Bowden with Jimbo Fisher and left Bowden to fall on the sword (retire) to try and make it look good. The problem is both the school President and the AD walked out of the press conference and left injured QB Christian Ponder to handle the tough questions. As of Tuesday, December 8th, they still refuse to talk and Bowden's only media contact has been the Gator Bowl teleconference. Just an odd situation IMO and I don't think it is going to work out too well for them. I also doubt that Bowden will stay on as a fund-raiser for FSU. In fact, I believe he is going to be very tempted to take a job for the 2011 season at a smaller FBS school.
Ok, on to the schools who are still looking.
Akron Under the old site format, of which I accidentally deleted the old history, I posted that I had some good info that J.D. Brookhart would be fired by Akron the day after their season ended. I The official press release was available by 11 AM! This is a job where not much info has been coming out publically, but here and here are some lists of potential replacements.
Kansas Kansas worked out a buy-out with Mark Mangino after abuse alligations and their coaching search includes Buffalo's Turner Gill. Houston Nutt took a while, but finally announced that he is happy at Arkansas and will stay there. I think this job is being over-valued by the Kansas AD and I think the school will be lucky to just maintain their recent success level of being a fringe top 25 team with a chance to win the Big XII North every few years.
Louisiana-Monroe Charlie Weatherbie was released a few weeks ago now and I have not seen a single report where it mentions who the potential replacements are. His overall record at UL-Monroe is not great (31-51) but it is UL-Monroe, so how many games a year do they expect to win? @ESPN_Others also thought it was a weird firing as well in a tweet when it first happened. Louisiana-Monroe has hired Carr Sports Associates to help find a new coach.
Louisville Steve Krapthorpe was not a good hire and Louisville ended their relationship after just a few seasons. Joe Schad from ESPN was reporting today that Florida Defensive Coordinator Charlie Strong will be announced tomorrow as the new head coach for Louisville after the hire is approved at a Board of Trustees meeting at 3:30 PM tomorrow. I think this is a good hire.
Marshall Marshall coach Mark Snyder resigned for "the best interests of the program" (he really was fired). FSU offensive line coach Rick Trickett is rumored to be the leading candidate for the job. I have not seen any lists with other names on them.
San Jose State Dick Tomey announced his retirement toward the end of the season. Tomey had a great career as a head coach including leading SJSU to a great 9-4 season in 2006 but had dropped off in recent years. I have no word on who they are interviewing for the job.
UNLV Mike Sanford was fired with a few weeks remaining in the season by UNLV. Rumor has it that former nomad coach Dennis Franchione contacted the school to see if they would be interested in talking to him. This was in mid-November and nothing has really come out about this opening after that.
Notre Dame I think a new "report" about this situation comes out about every 6 seconds. Yesterday it was that Stanford coach Jim Harbaugh and Cincinnati coach Brian Kelly were going to interview with ND in New York today. Todays news included a tweet from Coach Kelly saying that he would not interview with ND today. Then a tweet from his friend saying that his account was hacked, then a retraction of the hacked story.
Here is my understanding of the real news:
Harbaugh is not a candidate. He is close/already verbally agreed to a contract extension with Stanford. The Stanford AD keeps talking to the ND AD, Jack Swarbrick, because they are friends and he is helping Swarbrick through the process.
Brian Kelly will most likely be announced as the new head coach Friday.
Notre Dame has talked to Kirk Ferentz, who decided he wasn't interested after some discussion. Other candidates who have turned down Notre Dame include Urban Meyer, Bob Stoops (who did a lot of background work to see if he wanted to the job despite what he has said publicly), and Pat Fitzgerald.
Interested people include UConn's Randy Edsall and former Tennessee coach Philip Fulmer.
Hopefully that covers all of the coaching changes until current coaches like Kelly leave their current schools, creating the dreaded domino effect.
Posted By: JGuiher
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Utah State Field named to honor Olsen
Here is a copy of the AP article from ESPN
LOGAN, Utah -- The playing field inside Utah State's Romney Stadium will be renamed Merlin Olsen Field in honor of the former NFL player and USU standout.
University president Stan Albrecht and athletic director Scott Barnes made the announcement Saturday in a halftime ceremony during the Aggies' basketball game against St. Mary's.
Barnes says a sculpture of Olsen will be unveiled in a plaza south of the stadium during an official dedication ceremony in fall 2010.
Olsen did not speak but released a prepared statement saying he and his family are pleased and excited about the honor.
The Los Angeles Rams picked Olsen third overall in the 1962 NFL draft. He was named to a record 14 Pro Bowls and was a member of the Rams' so-called Fearsome Foursome.
Posted By: JGuiher
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Dr. Pepper Championship weekend Thoughts
I had a chance to attend the Cincinnati at Pitt game today, but it is very rare that both the wife and I can get off from work on the same day. Couple that with the fact that Monday is her Birthday so today was the best day to celebrate and it was a no-brainer to stay home. I had a great day with her and got to watch a ton of football as well. In fact, it may have been one of the best days of College Football I have ever watched.
ECU vs Houston: I have to say that I am not a fan of people who get jobs because they are related to someone who once did a good job in a similar position. Therefore, when Skip Holtz got the job at ECU, I never thought it would last long. But, every year the Pirates continue to amaze with solid defense and just enough offense to survive. The finish was good and Houston literally let the win slip through their hands at the end.
Cincinnati vs Pitt: This game pretty much went to script with Pitt realizing they were more physical then Cincy, so they proceeded to run the ball over 50 times, including a team record 47 by Lewis. Cincy however managed to stay just close enough in the game that they had a chance to come back when Coach "Wanstache" went into his usual Jim Tressel shell and attempted to give away the game. What is interesting to note about this game is that both teams missed extra points, but Cincy's was earlier in the game, allowing them to go for 2 later on (and get it) while Pitt's came on their last TD, resulting in a 1 point loss. The media seems to be calling this a good comeback win for Cincy, I see it more as a sign of total defensive weakness for Cincy. I mean, they gave up 44 points to Pitt!
Arizona vs USC: Another close finish with Arizona scoring the final score with less than 4 minutes left. I have to admit I didn't watch too much of this game, just the first quarter and the last 6 minutes or so, but from what I saw, USC is just not a top 25 team this year. I have to admit that I love how Pete goes nuts on his assistants everytime things get stressful. I find it odd how such a "cool" coach can be so flustered every time something doesn't go his way.
Florida vs Alabama: I watched the first half of this game and about 6 minutes of the 3rd quarter till it became apparent that Bama was just going to stick it to Florida. I went and spent some time with the wife and happened to walk back into the room as the clock was running out. Glad to see Tebow took lessons from Iverson and wasn't afraid to let his tears flow. #Tebowtears was actually the most tweeted this for a good 2 hours tonight and made for some funny reading during timeouts of the Big XII game.
Texas vs Nebraska: Suh for Nebraska is the best Defensive lineman in College Football. Better than Cody, better than Odrick (and I'm a PSU guy!), better than everyone, hand down. I hope he is the first Defensive guy invited to NY for the Heisman ceremony since Woodson. Just plain dominate. Back to the teams, Nebraska played one of the best Defensive games I have seen this year. They also played one of the worst offensive games I have seen all year. I mean seriously, both Penn State and Iowa each had more yards in their 6-4 debacle of a game a few years ago then Nebraska's 107 yards of offense! Couple that with a kick-off out of bounds and they cost themselves the game. Not to be outdone however, Colt McCoy tried to run the clock out before his team took the lead, making Les Miles laugh at his management skills. Lucky for him and Texas, Lloyd Carr was the replay official incharge of the clock, resulting in 1 second being put back on the clock and Bobby Bowden was no where to be found to the kick was able to sneak inside the upright for a 13-12 Texas win.
Georgia Tech vs Clemson: I didn't watch too much of this game, just some in-game highlights and I did DVR it for tomorrow evening. CJ Spiller had 307 all-purpose yards in the loss.
Wisconsin vs Hawaii: Hawaii needs to win this game to become bowl eligible but they are looking way over-matched right now. They are trailing 21-3 in the 2nd quarter. What I have seen so far, this game did create the best announcer soundbite of the night when Gannon and Norrie had a full conversation about a late hit by Hawaii and how those types of plays seem to occur with regularity on "the Island." I had a conversation with my wife a few days ago about how teams get a 13th game if they play at Hawaii to cover costs, but a lot of teams will not go play there because they play dirty (eye gouge, ankle twist, etc) and she didn't believe me. Can't wait to show her that clip. However, if anyone of importance gets ahold of this, Please, I would rather listen to the "Boom goes the Dynamite" guy then Mr. Norris.
Notes: The 2-point conversion caught by the Lineman for Fresno State was a great play and I hope it doesn't get overshadowed by the other games. I did wonder however if that wasn't an illegal man downfield as it was caught at the 1?
I figure Bama may open as a 9 point or so favorite against Texas for the NC game. I personally just don't see how Texas is going to win that game.
Posted By: JGuiher
